69 réponses à ce sujet

[Dale]

Javik never says they united the races to face the Protheans.  Jsut that their Evolutionary Imperative is that the strong dominate the weak.  And the Protheans were the strong.

 

 

Iakus,

 

My original statement said (more or less) "we conquered all advanced races to be subordinate to us -- in preparation for reaper invasion"

 

Your statement (above) said "Javik never says they UNITED the races to face the Protheans".   I think you meant "reapers".   Also as stated, I didn't mention "UNITED", I said "CONQUERED".   I finally got the exact dialogue:

 

We were the dominant race of our cycle. We ruled the galaxy.

 

What if they didn't want to?

 

They weren't given a choice.

 

Are you saying you enslaved the other species?

 

Any could oppose us if they wished. And if they had won, they would have ruled. Many tried. None succeeded.

 

We were one empire composed of many subjects. All eventually called themselves "Prothean."

 

What had been our strength - our empire - became a liability. All races conformed to one doctrine, one strategy.

 

The Reapers exploited this. Once they found our weaknesses, we could not adapt. The subservient races became divided and confused. Then, it was only a matter of time.

[teh DRUMPf!!]

Here's a random question I have, something I've always wondered but never got around to testing to see myself...

 

 

Is it possible to confront the ME2 final boss with only one squadmate, or leave nobody behind to hold the line?

[themikefest]

Here's a random question I have, something I've always wondered but never got around to testing to see myself...

 

 

Is it possible to confront the ME2 final boss with only one squadmate, or leave nobody behind to hold the line?

No.

 

 

Depending on how many squadmates are alive, you may not be able to send someone back to escort the crew. There has to be at least 4 alive. Three for the barrier and one for 2nd fireteam leader. Whoever the squadmate is for 2nd fireteam leader and they're on their own, will always survive. The reason is, someone can be taken by the swarm and you need to have at least 3 squadmates left. 1 to hold the line and 2 to fight the reaper. The times I had only one hold the line, he/she has always died. And of course for Shepard to live, at least 2 squadmates have to survive the mission even though it only takes one to help Shepard climb into the Normandy.

[Iakus]

 

Iakus,

 

My original statement said (more or less) "we conquered all advanced races to be subordinate to us -- in preparation for reaper invasion"

 

Your statement (above) said "Javik never says they UNITED the races to face the Protheans".   I think you meant "reapers".   Also as stated, I didn't mention "UNITED", I said "CONQUERED".   I finally got the exact dialogue:

 

We were the dominant race of our cycle. We ruled the galaxy.

 

What if they didn't want to?

 

They weren't given a choice.

 

Are you saying you enslaved the other species?

 

Any could oppose us if they wished. And if they had won, they would have ruled. Many tried. None succeeded.

 

We were one empire composed of many subjects. All eventually called themselves "Prothean."

 

What had been our strength - our empire - became a liability. All races conformed to one doctrine, one strategy.

 

The Reapers exploited this. Once they found our weaknesses, we could not adapt. The subservient races became divided and confused. Then, it was only a matter of time.

 

Yeah I typed "Prothean" when I meant "Reaper" my bad.

 

But what I was trying to say was the Protheans weren't preparing the galaxy to face the Reapers.  They just conquered because they were the biggest kids on the block

[SilJeff]

I know that Liara thinks you are a figment of her imagination if you go to Therum last.

 

How does Liara react to you if you go to Therum between Noveria and Feros?

[Vazgen]

I know that Liara thinks you are a figment of her imagination if you go to Therum last.

 

How does Liara react to you if you go to Therum between Noveria and Feros?

Same hallucination dialogue as I recall. The scene on the Normandy differs though, as I recall, if you go to Feros first.

[SilJeff]

Ok.

 

 

Wait, I'm sorry, I didn't notice the ME3 part, so I guess my question was off topic

[Vazgen]

The question I have spans the whole trilogy  

What is the size of a unit in Mass Effect? In general, what are the military units in the series?

Does storming the Torfan base with 6 people make sense ?

[Dale]

This question pertains to what to expect on various levels of difficulty.  

 

Some games open up completely new areas and new challenges that don't exist in lower difficulties.   N64 Perfect Dark is a good example.

 

Some games I've played on extreme:  okay I've got to be a little more careful -- but mostly it takes 5x more shots to take out an enemy so all I do is run around looking for ammo -- which to me is a bore.   Sometimes more enemies -- but the same objective.

 

What should I expect in ME?

 

Thanks..

[SporkFu]

This question pertains to what to expect on various levels of difficulty.  

 

Some games open up completely new areas and new challenges that don't exist in lower difficulties.   N64 Perfect Dark is a good example.

 

Some games I've played on extreme:  okay I've got to be a little more careful -- but mostly it takes 5x more shots to take out an enemy so all I do is run around looking for ammo -- which to me is a bore.   Sometimes more enemies -- but the same objective.

 

What should I expect in ME?

 

Thanks..

Ammo isn't a problem ... well, like everything else, it depends on your loadout, and your class. in my (so far) one and only insanity run, I played an engineershep armed with a mattock rifle and a predator pistol. Ammo is plentiful and i spammed powers more than anything, so cooldown rate is a huge factor. 

 

Most enemies aren't too much tougher, although they seem to use grenades a lot more, and grenades are frakkin' deadly. Elite-level or higher bosses can be a pain... Banshees, ravagers, and that damn trio of geth primes on Rannoch. Whoever dreamed up that level is a sadist. 

[ZipZap2000]

Depends what your fighting. Insanity against Reapers is a lot easier with cover and ammo powers, fire explosions/biotic detonations will usually even out the amount of time it takes to kill individual enemies in comparison to hard. Where Brutes and cannibals are concerned the difficulty isn't that much more different than hard other than the amount of grenades you have incoming which will force you from cover out into enemy fire but keeping aware of your surroundings will mean you always have somewhere to move to time your movements whenever possible to avoid ravager fire and they go down quite easily. Banshee's and Marauders are a different story shields can be stripped just as easily if you have the right team but a banshees barrier usually means you're trying to take down infantry with your guns and using bitotics to expose her armour. In general they tend to simply press you from as many angles as possible while throwing grenades to expose you while the bigger enemies Brutes/Banshees attempt to break your lines but are slower moving than other enemies. Incendiary grenades/ammo works best for me.

 

Cerberus is another matter they employ a strategy, pin you down with fire from a distance then force you from cover with grenades, while engineers flank round and set up turrets in areas you may need to move into and/or to prevent you moving in to their positions. All this is going on while troopers and guardians are employing a forward press and Nemesis snipers are positioning themselves to cover corridors and low cover areas. Phantoms follow up behind the troopers and guardians and if you aren't careful you won't see them till they hit you. Simple solution here is headshots, easiest crew to headshot in campaign is Cerberus and its the best thing you can do while you wait for your biotics to cooldown recommend double pull/singularity because guardians move in twos, take down engineers before or while they set up their turrets to destroy both and have one party member focus on stripping shields while the other uses biotics for crowd control you play the primer/detonator role for both. Singularity will help you hold a position and incendiary rounds set them up for overload when its not stripping shields, bring a sniper rifle.

 

Geth are really a combination of the two above full forward press under cover from rocket troopers using flanking movements wherever possible, hunters will press from as many angles as possible at the same time an example is the dreadnought, they will came straight down the guts but they will also press round the sides at the same time keep them at a distance. Geth like to ambush from close in and use the above tactics to shut you down before you can get time get to a safe distance (Rannoch mission is bad for this) avoid close quarter fighting and have a squaddy equipped with team disruptor rounds pick off the rocket troopers first and flank to surprise troopers and cut off hunters who haven't tried to move straight through the corridor. Geth Primes are a matter of patience it takes time, take down their drones as they spawn this means the prime spends time respawning them instead of using its pulse attack pick off the weaker enemies first and try not to let it/them get close.

[SporkFu]

So... not strictly a ME3 question, but I'm playing through Arrival right now -- gotta say it's kinda tough to survive all five waves for a soldiershep. They kept me pinned, heh. I couldn't replenish my ammo. Almost got through the 3rd wave... in my opinion I still had plenty of health left when I lost consciousness. Maybe that loss of shep control should have tweaked me to all the Kai Leng futility ahead.... Uh, anyway, Arrival is meant to be the bridge (in my opinion) between ME2 and ME3, so I feel okay asking the question here, heh.

 

So... My lovely soldiershep has just destroyed the collector base, and lost a few friends -- Jack, Thane, Jacob, Mordin and Zaeed --while doing so. Hackett calls me up and asks me to rescue his buddy, Dr. Kenson. So I do. I have just escaped the batarian prison with Kenson. We escaped in a shuttle and headed for the Object Rho base. On the way, we have quite a discussion about Object Rho and the reapers and mass effect relays, specifically the effects of ramming an asteroid into one.

 

My question is, who's flying the damn shuttle? 

[themikefest]

So... not strictly a ME3 question, but I'm playing through Arrival right now -- gotta say it's kinda tough to survive all five waves for a soldiershep. They kept me pinned, heh. I couldn't replenish my ammo. Almost got through the 3rd wave... in my opinion I still had plenty of health left when I lost consciousness. Maybe that loss of shep control should have tweaked me to all the Kai Leng futility ahead.... Uh, anyway, Arrival is meant to be the bridge (in my opinion) between ME2 and ME3, so I feel okay asking the question here, heh.

 

So... My lovely soldiershep has just destroyed the collector base, and lost a few friends -- Jack, Thane, Jacob, Mordin and Zaeed --while doing so. Hackett calls me up and asks me to rescue his buddy, Dr. Kenson. So I do. I have just escaped the batarian prison with Kenson. We escaped in a shuttle and headed for the Object Rho base. On the way, we have quite a discussion about Object Rho and the reapers and mass effect relays, specifically the effects of ramming an asteroid into one.

 

My question is, who's flying the damn shuttle? 

Maybe Kenson put it on auto-pilot.  That's the only answer I have.

[ImaginaryMatter]

My question is, who's flying the damn shuttle? 

 

That's a problem ME2 seems to have in general. Who is this nameless specter of a crew mate who goes with us on these fairly personal journeys and patiently waits in exploding ships and wartorn battlefields?

[von uber]

My question is, who's flying the damn shuttle? 

 

Steve's twin:

 

[ImaginaryMatter]

Steve's twin:

 

 

Are these TARDIS shuttles? They look so roomy on the inside.

[von uber]

They are built by the same design team as the Normandy:

 

[SporkFu]

That's a problem ME2 seems to have in general. Who is this nameless specter of a crew mate who goes with us on these fairly personal journeys and patiently waits in exploding ships and wartorn battlefields?

I don't mind the Normandy shuttle so much; It can be explained away as the pilot is some nameless crew member we just never interact with. Sometimes unrealistic, like you say, but acceptable.

[ImaginaryMatter]

They are built by the same design team as the Normandy:

 

 

Maybe mass effect fields distort spacial parameters or something like that?

[SporkFu]

Steve's twin:

 

Heh... if only you could mod him so he's wearing a cerberus uniform... then you could say, Steve's evil twin.

[Dale]

(snip) -- excellent write up on combat strategy  (REPLY#36 above)

ZipZap -

 

I would be amiss if I didn't acknowledge your time and thoughtfulness you put into this reply.  I will print it off & study it in detail.  Looks like someone with [lots of] first-hand experience – that would intimidate little ‘ol me.

 

See you on the battlefield.

Thank you kind sir!

[Undead Han]

The question I have spans the whole trilogy

What is the size of a unit in Mass Effect? In general, what are the military units in the series?

Does storming the Torfan base with 6 people make sense ?

 

Unit sizes are never stated in the game or outside sources as far as I'm aware, though it's probably safe to assume that at least for the humans they are organized similarly to modern NATO countries.

 

The breakdown in ascending order would probably be something like fire team > squad > platoon > company > battalion > regiment > division > corps > army.

 

Depending on the country or military organization (it varies slightly), a fire team would be 3 or 4 soldiers or Marines, a squad two or three fire teams, a platoon 3 or 4 squads, a company 3 or 4 platoons, a battalion 3 or 4 companies, a regiment 3 or 4 battalions, a division 3 or 4 regiments, a corps 2 to 5 divisions, and 2 to 5 corps to an army. That's a generalization though and sometimes you can have larger units.

 

All of them can be called units, though typically when someone in the military refers to 'my unit' they mean the company sized unit they are assigned to. 

 

Torfan was a planetary assault so I would think it involved more than just a handful of soldiers. If so I can't imagine that Shepard would be in overall command as he should still be fairly low on the totem pole. More likely he would have been in command of a smaller unit that participated as part of a larger operation involving other units.

 

Guessing his rank would help guestimate the size of the unit he was in command of.  A 2nd Lieutenant for example would typically be in command of a platoon. 1st Lieutenants would typically be the XO for a company and perhaps its acting commander under certain circumstances (like the CO being a casualty). Staff Lieutenant seems to be the Alliance equivalent to an Army or Marine Captain, which would typically be the CO of a company. Lt. Commander seems to be the Alliance equivalent to either an Army or Marine Major or a Lt. Colonel. Majors typically are the XO for a battalion or fill in on certain staff duties for the unit. A Lt. Colonel commands a battalion.

 

Ruthless Shep was at Torfan six years after joining the military. Depending on how quick (or long) it takes to move up the Alliance chain, he might have been a Staff Lieutenant. My best guess would be that he was a company commander at Torfan. Depending on how the Alliance is organized, a company could be anything from 80 to 250 Marines.

[SporkFu]

Maybe Kenson put it on auto-pilot. That's the only answer I have.

That's all I could come up with too. Shep should've known something wasn't right; flying an escape shuttle through hostile batarian space on cruise control.

[ZipZap2000]

@Han A Turian Platoon seems about 40-45 men Judging by the rescue mission on Tuchanka.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Shepard's enlistment date is pretty loose for the Colonist. It's set at 18 for War Hero and Earthborn.

 

What if Colonist-Ruthless Shepard went to college and ROTC. Graduated at the age of 23 in 2177 as a second lieutenant? Oh that's right. Shepard isn't smart enough to have gotten accepted into college. Silly me. "I thought Asari needed other species to reproduce."