MS isn't charging for upgrades anymore.
Don't mislead people. MS is only delaying the charge. The only alternative to paying up is reinstalling your old OS when the "free" period expires.
Edit: Sorry to take this thread off topic into another page, but I don't want to see people getting the wrong idea. Always read beyond the headlines ladies and gentlemen.
Don't mislead people. MS is only delaying the charge. The only alternative to paying up is reinstalling your old OS when the "free" period expires.
No, they confirmed that your Win10 is free forever if you upgrade within the first year.
Selling Windows to consumers is a tiny part of Microsofts business. A unified ecosystem is much more valuable to them than a few million USD from people who would buy their OS separately.
No, they confirmed that your Win10 is free forever if you upgrade within the first year.
Selling Windows to consumers is a tiny part of Microsofts business. A unified ecosystem is much more valuable to them than a few million USD from people who would buy their OS separately.
That's not where they get the bulk of their money from Windows sales from though. They get the bulk of their money from computer manufacturers, like HP, etc. No OS, you just bought a $1,500 door stop.
No, they confirmed that your Win10 is free forever if you upgrade within the first year.
Selling Windows to consumers is a tiny part of Microsofts business. A unified ecosystem is much more valuable to them than a few million USD from people who would buy their OS separately.
Alright. I apologise. However, from the few recent articles I've read, I haven't seen anything about weather or not people who receive the free upgrade will get a physical disc to do repair installs or re-installs after HDD re-formats. Could it be that users will have to go and buy a retail copy if we want to do a fresh install for whatever reason?
Alright. I apologise. However, from the few recent articles I've read, I haven't seen anything about weather or not people who receive the free upgrade will get a physical disc to do repair installs or re-installs after HDD re-formats. Could it be that users will have to go and buy a retail copy if we want to do a fresh install for whatever reason?
You can get a clean image of Windows 8.1 Pro on their website. Doubt this will change. You just need a valid key to use it after the 30 day trial.
Thanks for putting this up! It's great to see how the next ME is shaping up! After looking at everything I'm excited and like the way the game is moving! However, N7 has me a little concerned. I understand that the armor used in the concept art could be used as just an example(which looks amazing!!), but if the team is planning on placing the new hero in N7 (like Shepherd) I really hope that there is a great story behind as to why! BW has always put out a great story in my opinion, so I will have to put my faith in that they know what they are doing and have something amazing in store! Not sure if multi-race option is something I want to see personally, but I know a lot of people are eager to play different races. So I am open minded to the idea. And YAY for the MAKO!! Always loved the Mako and am so happy the Hammerhead is gone!! Every time I did a mission in the Hammerhead I was afraid to sneeze because the thing would blow up!! 
I would like more options in CC for ME and definitely more Fem Hair options! Can't wait for this game!! 
To be honest, even Legion had N7 (colors) on him....
I don't think that the character wearing N7 insignia is just a red herring. I mean, it might be, but him/her having something to do with N7 (source # : [18]) and this:
quite skilled and capable of surviving, but hasn't reached the legendary status of Shepard, even at the start of the trilogy. The story is about that person gradually becoming a hero.
[32]
point to an actual N7 operative. N7 soldiers aren't exactly singularities either, they are just very rare. Anderson, Leng and possibly Vega are N7. There are other very minor N7s on the wiki too.
EDIT:
Then again, being part of "N7 Ops" in the Reaper War rather than real N7 would allow for alien races as well, which would be quite fortunate. But you can bet that the protagonist being related to "N7" is going to be important. BioWare recognize that N7 is distinctive and they use it as often as possible in marketing material.
I think I can remember Gamble or someone else speaking about the picture saying something like: you can see N7 logo on the armor, so your hero has something to do with the alliance.
Am I wrong?
This is the exact wording:
Armor models showed off a male and female human character models but didn’t give any details other than what the actual armor will look like. It was stamped with the N7 logo, however, and Gamble confirmed that the player character will have “something to do with N7.”
http://www.gamefront...ew-mass-effect/
Rather than being some alliance soldier again. I would like it to be some badass mercenary, or some such, who has stolen that N7 armor.
The question is "what is that something"?
I'm going to guess that the person moved from being an N7 soldier to working for this company (or conglomeration of companies) called A.R.K.C.O.N. They are either "on loan" from the Alliance or they are former military.
Or it could be a former N7 soldier who quit the military, or was forced somehow and ended up getting a ship and a few people to travel around galaxy doing whatever there is to do.
Some people have suggested that N7 might not even refer to an Alliance soldier after the end of ME3, since humans and aliens were already taking part in the program during the Reaper War.
Also, there was a rumour that this Mass Effect will portray N7 as something like an ideal (with Shepard as a model hero or whatever) for people to try to live up to, rather than just a military rank. Some fans at a secret focus group at PAX in 2013 were asked what N7 meant to them as a concept.
So somebody could presumably be an explorer or a mercenary and still call themselves N7 if they're trying to follow the Commander's footsteps and change the galaxy.
(I don't particularly like that idea, but it's a theory that's been going around.)
Or it could be a former N7 soldier who quit the military, or was forced somehow and ended up getting a ship and a few people to travel around galaxy doing whatever there is to do.
Yeah.
I have a feeling we're going to have a galaxy map that is similar, in function, to the Dragon Age War table. Like in the Mass Effect Datapad mini-game, the galaxy map won't be just where we plot our ships course, but where we send fleets. If the protagonist is commanding fleets, then I suspect they'll have had experience doing so in the military.
Or maybe N7 is a symbol of what this character wants to become? N6 is usually the highest rank one can achieve in the Systems Alliance, however N7 is reserved for those carry out their assignments in "effective and admirable fashion" (taken from the wiki)
A.R.K.C.O.N in my opinion is actually more or less a scouting party, that was a secret operation by the Systems Alliance and alien allies that allowed civilization to build a relay that bypassed the original relays built by the reapers. There was a reddit post about this I read a few days ago:
[–]James_Vega 6 points
13 days ago
ARKCON: Alliance Research and Knowledge, Covert Operations and Navigation.
Maybe like the character (perhaps depending on backstory options) will somehow be affiliated with the alliance/council and the mapping of unexplored relays.
There'll be new (maybe big, bad) aliens on the other side which we'll run into. New planets, new resources, new political divisions.
I doubt there'll be anything as massive-scale as the reapers, but I have a funny feeling there'll be some sort of insurgence revolving around either a) the political situation post-ME3 (dependent on shep's choices) or
an emerging race (perhaps the teased 'arrogant' race or the ancient 'guardian' race).
Bioware also, if I recall correctly, asked fans which race they'd most like to see go if they had to choose. Not sure if it's at all relevant, but the answers were Quarian and Krogan- maybe that could indicate some sort of destruction planned for either of those races? May be a tragic but important plot point.
Its how I'm seeing this unfold imo. Could be wrong. Probably am. Way too early to tell, there isn't even a title for the game yet.
Or it could be a former N7 soldier who quit the military, or was forced somehow and ended up getting a ship and a few people to travel around galaxy doing whatever there is to do.
Or, going by this:
Thinking of the next Mass Effect game as Mass Effect 4 would imply a certain linearity, a straight evolution of the gameplay and story of the first three games.
That doesn't mean that events of the first three games and the choices you made won't get recognized, but they likely won't be what this new story will focus on. If you had three games centred around a group of key soldiers in the US army during World War I and then decided to make a game about another group of people during the Second World War, the games could have many points in common and feel true to one another.
You likely would have to recognize how the events of the first war influenced the ones of the second, but you would not necessarily think of it as a sequel. Again, the analogy is not great, but what I'm trying to say is that the ME universe is so rich that we are not limited to a single track when coming up with a new story.
It could involve exploring the universe in the distant future of ME. A point in time where Shepard's story is Legend and N7 has evolved to be associated with something other than military training. Perhaps the universe has reached a technological singularity, which is the hypothesis that accelerating progress in technologies will cause a runaway effect wherein artificial intelligence will exceed human intellectual capacity and control, thus radically changing civilization in an event called the singularity. Because the capabilities of such an intelligence may be impossible for a human to comprehend, the technological singularity is an occurrence beyond which events may become unpredictable, unfavorable, or even unfathomable
Two examples of these types of Stories would be Neal Asher's Polity stories and Iain M Banks Culture novels.
So beyond that point, Shepard's actions are noteworthy but the universe has changed so much due to the singularity that they are no longer relevant to how things stand.
Some people have suggested that N7 might not even refer to an Alliance soldier after the end of ME3, since humans and aliens were already taking part in the program during the Reaper War.
I would personally prefer going with this "N7 Ops" route. It would allow playing as different races.
Though to be precise, those guys weren't N7s, or candidates for the N7 program (like Vega), they were part of (semi-irregular) squads initially lead by N7 marines.
So somebody could presumably be an explorer or a mercenary and still call themselves N7 if they're trying to follow the Commander's footsteps and change the galaxy.
That would be...uh, pretty bad? Being a wannabe N7 would fall somewhere between Conrad Verner levels of military fetishism to actually being inconsiderate of actual soldiers who served and died in the Reaper War.
I certainly hope that we don't see something like this.
Well, the new protagonist has already been described as different to Shepard, and Mac said in the N7 Day update that the focus is on someone who doesn't necessarily start out as a famous hero.
(Incidentally, the fact that "N7" has been co-opted by marketing as a symbol of the Mass Effect franchise is precisely why they might keep using it, even though Shepard won't be in the game. The sort-of-creepy "Shepard tribute" vibes are an added bonus, if they still think a lot of players are in mourning or whatever.)
Well, the new protagonist has already been described as different to Shepard, and Mac said in the N7 Day update that the focus is on someone who doesn't necessarily start out as a famous hero.
Well, I've noticed S1 and S2 on Vega's and Ashley's armor. Sorry, can't recall which is which. Maybe that stands for Specialist rank number? And what we know from Vega is that he gets invited to join the N7 program before Ash, but maybe that's because Ashley just became a Spectre? But from what I'm thinking the Specialist is below the N ranking, at least as far as the Alliance goes.
Well, I've noticed S1 and S2 on Vega's and Ashley's armor. Sorry, can't recall which is which. Maybe that stands for Specialist rank number? And what we know from Vega is that he gets invited to join the N7 program before Ash, but maybe that's because Ashley just became a Spectre? But from what I'm thinking the Specialist is below the N ranking, at least as far as the Alliance goes.
I think it's a 6, on Vega? He is an N6.
Ashley's S1 could either mean "Spectre 1", or "S" is her Alliance military specialisation.
Alliance rank designations follow a letter of the alphabet + 1-7 to show seniority, so presumably all of those combinations mean a different thing, although I reckon it's probably a mistake by the writers to give her a low rank.
(And it might not be the case that "S" has to be "Scout", "Sniper" etc... because "N" is the specialist class for special-ops marines.)
@Elite,
Vega has never been to N school, so the 6 on his armor can't be a shortened version of N6. It's implied in one of the conversations with Shepard in ME3 that he was given an offer to go through the N school, but the Reaper War broke out shortly after. The dialogue is a little screwy in that he refers to it as the 'N7 program' rather than the N school or the Villa, but he has to be talking about the N school in general since there is no N7 program. N7s are just N6s with an exemplary combat record. N6 is the highest designation that can be obtained at the N school.
No, go back to Mars. You'll clearly see that they have S1 and S2 on both of their uniforms. Ash isn't a spectre at that point. Or the S could just stand for Ship's armor #1 and #2?
@Elite,
Vega has never been to N school, so the 6 on his armor can't be a shortened version of N6. It's implied in one of the conversations with Shepard in ME3 that he was given an offer to go through the N school, but the Reaper War broke out shortly after. The dialogue is a little screwy in that he refers to it as the 'N7 program' rather than the N school or the Villa, but he has to be talking about the N school in general since there is no N7 program. N7s are just N6s with an exemplary combat record. N6 is the highest designation that can be obtained at the N school.
Hm, it looks like the writers forgot about their own lore again, I guess.
All of the Alliance ranks stuff was apparently written by Drew Karpyshyn and Chris L'Etoille about 9 or 10 years ago, and both of them have now left Bioware, so I guess it's not really surprising - but they should still try hard to keep to what the Codex says, at least.
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