20 réponses à ce sujet

[yearsofdecay]

Hey guys. I'm a brand spanking new ME player. Have no idea what the game is even about, I'll admit that. I am a huge fan of Dragon Age and play the new SW MMO Bioware has. Figured I'd give this series a shot and wanted to start from the beginning so I just got the first one. It seems to be out of print and I had to buy a used copy for Xbox. It came with no manual though. I guess i'll play and figure it out as I go. Any advice on an approach to the game would be appreciated. Also, how many hours can I expect to get out of it. I plan on getting 2 and 3 eventually. Just wondering if by the time I get through the first 2, the third might drop in price by then.

[caradoc2000]

Playing time depends on whether you choose to do any/all side quests. The main quest can probably be done in 15-20 hours, but if you explore all the planets you can easily clock 50-70 hours.

Money will be scarce early on, but later in the game it is not an issue. Loot is level-dependant so you can expect the best items to be available only past level 40.

I'd suggest you do the Luna mission that lets you choose a class specialization as soon as it becomes available (@ level 20).

The Mass Effect Wiki is a good source of general information if you beware spoilers.

[yearsofdecay]

Cool, thanx for the advice. I saved the Wiki page to my faves. Very helpful.

[Iezza]

I did the campaign within 8 hours on a speed run. but of course as a new player, youd want to savour the enviroment a lot more.

[abch4]

I'm jealous of you, you're in for a treat. I'd clean out your inventory after every quest [biggest gripe with the game] so you don't have to reduce armour upgrades and weapons into Omni-gels when found

[PsiFive]

hallidio wrote...

I'm jealous of you, you're in for a treat. I'd clean out your inventory after every quest [biggest gripe with the game] so you don't have to reduce armour upgrades and weapons into Omni-gels when found

But hang on to a few of the Rank VII weapon upgrades, especially tungsten and shredder ammo, because they stop appearing in loot and shops after a certain point and they can be sometimes be preferable to the Rank VIII, IX and X equivalents. I ended up with a couple of Tungsten VII and three or four Shredder VII and had to keep swapping them around between my squad if I wanted to use them, which in turn meant remembering to take them off of whoever had them equipped last so they could go back into inventory for someone else to use next. If I'd realised they were going to stop appearing I'd have kept enough for everyone.

[abch4]

PsiFive wrote...

hallidio wrote...

I'm jealous of you, you're in for a treat. I'd clean out your inventory after every quest [biggest gripe with the game] so you don't have to reduce armour upgrades and weapons into Omni-gels when found

But hang on to a few of the Rank VII weapon upgrades, especially tungsten and shredder ammo, because they stop appearing in loot and shops after a certain point and they can be sometimes be preferable to the Rank VIII, IX and X equivalents. I ended up with a couple of Tungsten VII and three or four Shredder VII and had to keep swapping them around between my squad if I wanted to use them, which in turn meant remembering to take them off of whoever had them equipped last so they could go back into inventory for someone else to use next. If I'd realised they were going to stop appearing I'd have kept enough for everyone.

As messy as the system was, talking about it makes me miss that level of customization

[PsiFive]

hallidio wrote...

PsiFive wrote...

hallidio wrote...

I'm jealous of you, you're in for a treat. I'd clean out your inventory after every quest [biggest gripe with the game] so you don't have to reduce armour upgrades and weapons into Omni-gels when found

But hang on to a few of the Rank VII weapon upgrades, especially tungsten and shredder ammo, because they stop appearing in loot and shops after a certain point and they can be sometimes be preferable to the Rank VIII, IX and X equivalents. I ended up with a couple of Tungsten VII and three or four Shredder VII and had to keep swapping them around between my squad if I wanted to use them, which in turn meant remembering to take them off of whoever had them equipped last so they could go back into inventory for someone else to use next. If I'd realised they were going to stop appearing I'd have kept enough for everyone.

As messy as the system was, talking about it makes me miss that level of customization

Yeah, I'd say they went too far the other way with ME2. Over complicated and demanding you spend game time on inventory management got turned into over simplified and loss of fine tuning.

[yearsofdecay]

Unfortunately, that level of simplification has happened to a lot of series. Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age come to mind. I started yesterday, but don't really know what I'm doing yet. I was going to download and print the manual, then realized I am out of printer ink! Now I have to wait till Monday when I get more. But just playing around I can tell I'll be hooked in no time. I admit, I'm a little confused by some of the menus. Mainly the equipment menu. I'm gonna tool around in there and see how it works. Thanks for the tips guys!

[caradoc2000]

A couple of tips: Not all side quests are available from the start, many quests and star systems unlock when you progress further into the game.

Also, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the talents of your party members. Look at the character sheets and read the talent descriptions.

Third, if you want to be able to open the locked containers during quests, take a techie with you (Tali, Kaidan, Garrus or tech-Shepard).

Modifié par caradoc2000, 18 mars 2012 - 03:37 .

[yearsofdecay]

I am totally hooked on this game. More shooter than RPG, but a very cool and immersive story. From what some said, I should hold onto upgrades for later? What about weapons and armor themselves? If they are pretty useless, is it better to turn them into gel or wait till I get to a vendor to sell em? Also, I ended up selling my copy back to Game Stop because it was damaged and unreadable. I ended up downloading the game directly from XBox Marketplace, but I don't know how to register the game here. Actually, I'm not sure if I can. I haven't seen anything for Mass Effect 1. I guess you can only register 2 and 3. Thanks again for the tips.

[caradoc2000]

You can't register ME1 (any version) here. You could in the now defunct old BioBoards.

[Morbidity]

About all I can say about ME1 is that I thought it to be the most epic and best story of them all but I hated trying to get to stuff just over yon hill in that freaking mako (the mako has a zoom btw, didn't know for like ever). ME2 prolly went deepest into characters but the story sorta just meandered along but thats ok since most novels 2nd book does that. The 3rd, while good, was the least of them in dialog immersion.

As for general tips, I think the engineer is a solid choice of class for any difficulty in all 3 games though the sentinel is also a strong pick for insane in ME2. When you get to ME2 though, if your playing on lower difficulties, you might prefer the vanguard (esp in ME3) since its best equipped for fast run and gun style of play thats simply not viable on insane.

You may also feel the need to mod some things if your playing on PC like maybe removing limited ammo or modding an engineer to have access to a sniper before they normally unlock it. I grew to like the limited ammo change before I looked into modding so I never bothered but it can be something of a downer going from the ME1 unlimited ammo system to the ME2 system.

[Tonymac]

Keep us up to date so we can give you tips. Also - talk to your squaddies - talk to all of them. They will have loyalty missions - and these will come into play later on in the game.

Take your time with that game - its a gem. Enjoy every minute of it. I still play it from time to time.

[PsiFive]

yearsofdecay wrote...

From what some said, I should hold onto upgrades for later? What about weapons and armor themselves? If they are pretty useless, is it better to turn them into gel or wait till I get to a vendor to sell em?

Well, obviously a Whatevermake Anygun II is better than a Whatevermake Anygun I, and the amount of money you get for selling the low rank weapons and mods is so pitiful that you really may as well turn any surplus ones that you don't want to keep for you or your squad into omni-gel. That's only up to a point because once the mid ranks start showing up they can be worth hanging on to and selling, especially if you.... ah, I can't say, it's a bit spoilery. If you want to find out then google "making money in Mass Effect" or something like that and you should soon find a useful tip involving a particular vendor. But you can also reach a point where you're rolling in so many credits that it doesn't matter whether you gel it or sell it, especially on a second playthrough with the same character. In fact it's not all that hard to hit the max money of 9,999,999 credits so that anything you sell goes for 0 credits. Even if it's a Rank X Spectre Assault Rifle you might as well either keep it in inventory or if the whole squad's already got one each turn it into omni-gel. Believe me, in the second game I gelled so much expensive kit because the whole team already had the best weapons I could give them and several of every weapons mod. Apart from the Rank VII Tungsten and Shredder ammo, because I didn't realise that tthey change a bit and there isn't a Rank VIII of those or that they'd stop appearing after I reached a certain level, and so I sold most of them. Kicked myself when I realised.

Same applies to omni-tools, biotic amplifiers and armour. Low ranked stuff is worth peanuts when you try to sell it and might as well be turned into gel in case you stuff up an unlocking mini-game later. Middle to high ranked stuff can be worth hanging on to to sell later. Don't chuck any decent Quarian armour right away though - it's as rare as hens' teeth and you should check to see if it upgrades Tali's before you do anything else with it because you might not see it again for a long time, if at all. There is one place where you can get such a good set of Quarian armour that you can pretty much sell or gel any more you come across, but again, spoilery to say more and you can google it if that doesn't bother you. And don't worry so much about the transition from Rank VII to Rank VIII armour mods because it's really just those two ammo types (and Cryo but I think to a lesser extent).

Last thing, and this is semi-spoliery so stop here if you want to find out everything as you play.
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....

Certain makes of weapons, armour and equipment are way better than others of the same rank. Some makes are better than others one or two ranks higher, though usually only in one or two areas. Serrice (may not have the spelling quite right) omni-tools and biotic amps are the mutts nuts and worth equipping any squad members or Shepards who use them. High ranked Predator L, M and H armour is incredibly tough stuff and again can be better than higher ranked armour from other makers - I finished with Shep in Rank IX Predator M because it was still better than any other other make Rank X stuff that was appearing. Finally weapons.... once you can get the high ranked Spectre guns you'll find your inventory can sometimes reach capacity because you'll just be be too busy kicking arse and taking names to manage it as often as you used to.

[abch4]

The Mako may have it's detractors but i loved landing on a planet in one and just lapping up all that amazing scenery

[Morbidity]

I agree actually. Navigating mountain planets was frustrating but i'd of way rather them just fixed that than remove it. Hell, I'd rather them make it twice as frustrating than to replace it with scanning.

[Arkwright99]

I'm on my first ME play-through (just reached level 31 Soldier Shepard) and the inventory management is quite...frustrating is the wrong word, but I'm often all at sea knowing whether Manufacturer's Item X is better or worse than Manufacturer's Item Y or whether once I'm getting Rank V or VI gear I should be selling off Rank III stuff. Consequently I suspect I'm carrying a whole lot of stuff I don't really need simply because I don't understand what I've got (unlike in Dragon Age where everything is more intuitive). To give one specific, I've equiped most of my squad with Combat Scanners (Ranks IV and V) to negate geth jamming but I don't know whether I only need to equip Shepard with one or everyone and in any case it doesn't seem to make any difference anyway (at least not in the instances where I'm still getting jammed).

The other thing I'm still struggling with is fixing Shepard's health where it drops to near-death levels; I'm lugging around 7 medi-gel kits but I don't seem to have a way of using them, and while Shepard and Tali both have high First Aid talents (thanks to the stupid Auto-leveling) only Shepard has the Unity Talent which only affects fallen squad members. Again, it's all far less inuitive than Dragon Age.

Modifié par demos99, 21 mars 2012 - 10:05 .

[yearsofdecay]

I haven't gotten very far yet. I just finished Eden Prime (forgive me if I got the name wrong). I'm learning my way around The Citadel now. But I'm already seeing what you mean Demos. I wish the inventory screen was a little more organized. I usually just equip whatever does the most damage. I don't concern myself with overheat or accuracy, as the accuracy can be fixed with skill points I believe. I'm doing manual leveling. But navigating through each squad member, comparing weapons and armor, and looking through upgrades gets confusing. Most times, I don't even know what the hell I have on me because there isn't a simple list of items. At least not that I've found. I have to go the weapon, look at any additional weapons, click X for upgrades, then move right to look at ammo upgrades. I'm sure I'll get used to it. But, honestly, it's not annoying enough to take away from the game itself. Beautiful graphics, great story. I haven't used the Mako yet, so I'll see how bad it is when I get to it.

[Thetri]

First playthrough, I'd expect you to get at least 30 or more hours providing you do all the sidequests. You should seriously do side quests in between the main missions or the game will end up being short.

[PsiFive]

demos99 wrote...

To give one specific, I've equiped most of my squad with Combat Scanners (Ranks IV and V) to negate geth jamming but I don't know whether I only need to equip Shepard with one or everyone and in any case it doesn't seem to make any difference anyway (at least not in the instances where I'm still getting jammed).

I think I saw that only one party member with Shepard, or Shep him/herself, needs to have the Combat Scanner or Combat Optics (higher rank version of the Combat Scanner) equipped to defeat Geth jamming provided the mod's rank is high enough to defeat whatever Geth is doing the jamming. This is probably the reason why you're still getting jammed even though all three in the squad have one - the particular jammer you're dealing with is too powerful for the rank of Combat Scanner you have equipped. The only way round this is to find and equip a better one, and once you've got a Combat Optics X on your gun I don't think any Geth is capable of jamming you. Annoyingly quite a few still can when you're still using Scanner IV or V.

The other possible reason is that the Combat Scanners/Optics don't do anything unless it's on a weapon Shep or one of your squadmates has in their hands. You cannot, for example, stick it on a sniper rifle that you're not planning to use so you can sneak around rocks to get behind Geth and blast them in the back with a shotgun. But if you've got all three with a Scanner I'm guessing at least one of them has it on the weapon they're using so I think it more likely that jamming strength vs rank of your anti-jamming mod is your problem there. If so there's nothing you can do until you can upgrade apart from go slow and careful when jamming begins and use the old Mark 1 Eyeball to try to avoid running into an ambush. Oh, and a lot of Geth jamming comes from Hoppers, Snipers and Primes, so if you see any of those while you're being jammed you may find that destroying it will bring your radar back.

By the way, if you get jammed while driving the Mako then find a safe place (just outside the jamming zone is often wise) and get out on foot. Then draw a weapon with a Combat Scanner/Optics on, the higher rank the better, and get back in the Mako without putting that gun away. Your anti-jamming countermeasure will then be applied to the mako's radar, though again it can still be jammed if whatever Geth is doing the jamming is too strong for your countermeasures.

@yearsofdecay The Mako's alright. Actually it's a lot of fun as well as being very hard for most enemies to kill (big exception is a Thresher Maw coming out the ground right next to you, which seems to be an instant kill for the Mako and everyone in it). The problem is just that you're usually dropped ****ing miles and miles from your objective and any loot or artifacts, and half the time there's a thousand spiky mountains to get over or round before you can get there. Since you're later told that the Normandy only needs 100 metres of level ground (actually less than that) to drop the Mako safely it's fair to wonder why you're almost never dropped a bit closer. I suspect the real world answer is game padding because a 50+ hour playthrough has probably invovled several hours driving over every inch of every map. The in-game answer? Er.... Joker actually has a lousy sense of direction and Pressly's always too busy yapping to do any navigating? Don't know, really. I do know that as much as I liked the Mako the sheer amount of driving you have to do seemed excessive for me. Your mileage literally may vary.

Modifié par PsiFive, 21 mars 2012 - 03:22 .