64 Antworten in diesem Thema

[KaiserShep]

No, I don't miss it, and am kind of glad that it's gone, partly because it ties heavily into the mediocre gunplay. I very much prefer ME3's system overall. 

[iM3GTR]

The one I didn't like was Mass Effect 2. But 3's was better in the sense that each square made more difference. The only thing was that you couldn't put points into charm or intimidate, and I didn't like the Morality system in 2 or 3.

[voteDC]

Playing through Mass Effect 1 on the harder difficulties without upgrading your abilities is quite a challenge. Playing the other two games without upgrading is relatively easy, also the gunplay isn't affected so you can just fall back on your weapons.

The skill trees in Mass Effect 1 may not have been as visually distinct as the following two games but the differences were felt a whole lot more.

[KaiserShep]

The one I didn't like was Mass Effect 2. But 3's was better in the sense that each square made more difference. The only thing was that you couldn't put points into charm or intimidate, and I didn't like the Morality system in 2 or 3.

I thought 3's was the best, because I didn't have to commit so much to one or the other, so it felt much more flexible. I didn't like the way ME1 required you to act a certain way to allow more points in either charm or intimidate. Its saving grace to me is the Noveria glitch where you can max out both renegade and paragon, unlocking both missions that are tied to the morality spectrum. ME2's is easily the worst, because it was much more rigid about which special dialogue options are accessible.

[Cyberstrike nTo]

Nope. I vastly prefer the skill tree in ME2. I am actually So glad they got rid of the ME1 skill tree. 

 

To first-time players, particularly players who have never played an RPG (or pseudo-RPG), the ME1 skill tree is rather quite intimidating. Upon further reflection and playthroughs -- or advanced knowledge -- ME1 skill tree, does not actually provide much customization at all and can actually be rather limiting.

 

I'll break down my thoughts in more detail in another post since it will take some time to write.

 

This is pretty much how I feel. I just started a new ME1 game and the skill tree is awkward and doesn't make a much of difference outside of a few skills. 

[Satele-Shan87]

No i don't miss it. Far too complicated, a good thing it was changed

[Canned Bullets]

It seemed way too extraneous with a lot of things that were useless. I think ME3 had it right.

[Tonymac]

I like the ME1 skill trees.  I also really enjoyed the amount of customization for weapons and armor - we had SO many ammo types, guns, and equipment for all of those slots.  

 

I didn't appreciate the way ME2 did it at all, it felt watered down and simplified to the point where it was boring.  ME3 was kind of meh, but I only played the SP once because I despise the ending.

 

I enjoyed having all of that customization, like getting Wrex the BattleMaster armor series from the Geth Armory drops.  It was fun to get my team into the same armor type / look because it made us all look pro-sauce.  I'd have fun getting Tali the Geth Pulse Rifle with the equipment slots as an inside joke (Geth Upgrades).

 

I miss the freedom we had in ME1 (I guess that's why I still play ME1 and 2).  The citadel was huge and packed full of quests, and it really had a feel about it that I enjoyed.  The game still leaves me smiling seeing many of the vistas and things like the shifty looking cow.  There was so much in that game that was "unknown" - it was a lot of fun to explore so many different worlds.  I guess that's what hooked me on mass effect in the first place.

[iM3GTR]

I feel the same. I've only played Mass Effect 3 once because the story is a bit rubbish.

[SwobyJ]

ME1's was too annoying. ME2's was too stupid.

 

ME3's isn't perfect but its the most enjoyed one by me so far.

 

MEA's can even be as expansive (or more than) as ME1, but upgrades need to be smarter and effect more. ME1 was pointless mini-nodes (for a shooter). OMG I'm so happy I do a microscopic percentage more damage with my pistol! *barf*

[voteDC]

ME1's was too annoying. ME2's was too stupid.

 

ME3's isn't perfect but its the most enjoyed one by me so far.

 

MEA's can even be as expansive (or more than) as ME1, but upgrades need to be smarter and effect more. ME1 was pointless mini-nodes (for a shooter). OMG I'm so happy I do a microscopic percentage more damage with my pistol! *barf*

There's the thing though, it wasn't a shooter. It just hid the dice roll behind the veneer of third person shooting.

It's one of the things that puzzles me to be honest. Mass Effect gets rubbished for hiding the dice roll behind fake real time combat, yet Dragon Age II and Inquisition are praised for doing the exact same thing (on console anyway).

[RedCaesar97]

There's the thing though, it wasn't a shooter. It just hid the dice roll behind the veneer of third person shooting.

It's one of the things that puzzles me to be honest. Mass Effect gets rubbished for hiding the dice roll behind fake real time combat, yet Dragon Age II and Inquisition are praised for doing the exact same thing (on console anyway).

 

I cannot speak to Dragon Age series, but I agree with your points to some extent. 

 

I would argue that there was no "dice roll" in Mass Effect 1, but you started out with such bad stats that at the beginning of the game it made it very hard to play, especially on harder difficulties. This is mostly due to how weapon accuracy worked. This makes it hard when combat plays out in real time, when both the player and enemy can attack and damage each other at the same time as opposed to turn-based combat. Weapon (and power) damage is consistent, with no 'critical damage' or 'chance of inflicting damage/chance of inflicting no damage' dice rolls. 

 

Mass Effect 2 removed the weapon accuracy modifiers from gun upgrades and weapon talent trees and crouching mechanics, which allowed them to refine the shooter gameplay allowing for faster and more fluid combat. 

 

* * *

 

Having started playing Mass Effect 1 again, you can see how the designers constructed the early levels to account for you having poor weapons and weapon accuracy and cooldowns lasting 60-freaking-seconds by spacing out the combat, and having most enemies move slower. You have husks and other bum-rush enemies, but these enemies are limited in numbers early so as not to overwhelm the player when they cannot aim or using a lot of powers. You also have minute-long stretches between encounters so the few powers you can use have cooled down between encounters. Early enemy encounters also tend to have fewer enemies so you are not overwhelmed by more enemies than you can handle with your weapons and powers. 

[voteDC]

The dice roll was there, not the best implementation (centre mass only) but there it was there. Also the enemies were tied to that same dice roll, they can actually miss in the first Mass Effect.

Compare that to the next two games where unless the enemies were using heavy weapons, they all had pin-point accuracy.

I confess I'd never noticed the level design as you mention it but you are quite right. When Virmire unlocks you should be at a high enough level for decent accuracy and cover is still set pretty well. You learn something new every day.

[Synthetic Turian]

I do, and I always will. It's the main reason why Mass Effect 1 is my favorite game.

[KotorEffect3]

No, ME 1's skill trees were often redundant and there were no options if you wanted to evolve certain powers or abilities, all you could do was prioritize what you wanted to max out.  While ME 2 was bare bones with it's skill trees you could at least choose at the fourth upgrade how you wanted to evolve that ability, and ME 3 took that and expanded it so you were constantly choosing how you wanted your ability to evolve throughout the game.

[Neverwinter_Knight77]

ME2's was the worst. Often I'd level up and not have enough points to actually do anything about it.

ME1 was better in that regard, but gaining 2% accuracy and 1% weapon damage or whatever it was, was meh. Also, sometimes you're just screwed when it comes to charm/intimidate. I had to do a New Game Plus before I could spare Jeong, for example ("Who would want to do that?" I know...).

ME3 had the best system, I think.

[JJ Likeaprayer]

I miss everything in ME1...I don't know,there's just a certain pure feeling about ME1...I also miss the driving system in ME1,and what I miss the most is the "menu theme" song in ME1...so f*cking amazing,you can actually see the galaxy when you listen to it with your eyes closed!

 

And here it is:

[spockjedi]

I think the worst thing about the ME1 skill system was NOT BEING ABLE TO RE-SPEC Shepard's powers.
The rest was tolerable.

[AshenSugar]

I'm fine with all three games just as they are.

 

I like the skill tree in ME:1, and I'm quite surprised that anybody found it 'too complex', or 'intimidating'. I'm not a hardcore RPG gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but it all made sense to me. Maybe not so much on the first-ever playthrough, but that's one of the fun things about gaming for me - learning as you progress, gaining understanding and insight as you gain experience in the game. 

 

I've always loved that sense of starting off weak, with only limited skills, and gradually working toward making myself proficient/knowledgeable. I think the ME:1 skill system did a fine job of that, so I'm happy with it, and wouldn't want it to change.

 

And from an RP perspective it made sense for me not to have it in ME:2, given that Shepard had already learned how to be proficient with various weapons and abilities in the first game - it would have made little sense to have to 're-learn' all his weapon skills - thus the skills learned in ME:2 were more specialist in nature. ME:1 was about learning the basics, ME:2 was about filling in the remaining gaps in his knowledge. It also made sense to start ME:3 already in possession of a generous range of skills.

[Neverwinter_Knight77]

I never understood the "accuracy" system in Mass Effect. I mean, if I'm the one pointing the gun, shouldn't I be the thing that determines accuracy? I guess it's like the dice roll combat in KOTOR and NWN. Stand right next to a guy, and still don't hit him. NWN local vault multiplayer got ridiculous with that.

[voteDC]

I never understood the "accuracy" system in Mass Effect. I mean, if I'm the one pointing the gun, shouldn't I be the thing that determines accuracy? I guess it's like the dice roll combat in KOTOR and NWN. Stand right next to a guy, and still don't hit him. NWN local vault multiplayer got ridiculous with that.

That's exactly what the combat is the first game means, it's the dice roll of a dungeons and dragons style game but with a little more control. Real time VATS with you want to go Bethesda Fallout.

One of the things I like about it is the feeling of progression. Shepard (and crew) shows real growth throughout the first game. They are clearly better at the end than they are at the beginning. Even for a Soldier Shepard.

[Coil Whine]

I think it could have been refined a bit to maybe make it less intimidating, but once you know what everything does it's a pretty powerful system IMO. Personally I do miss being able to level up both charm and intimidate and not be in any way punished for having them both equally high. Though I normally focus on either paragon or renegade either myself.

I always thought it was a bit odd that you would only be trained for one or two weapons, yet you'd still always have access to all of them. Personally I thought that was a bit pointless and I wasted a lot of upgrades on untrained weapons that I never used for the sake of appearance and perfectionism. I tended to stick to the weapon/s I had high skills in.

I mean props to the devs for making such an intensely RPG esque upgrade/talent system, but they did go a bit overboard. With some upgrades and skill points giving you like a 1% bonus in a very niche area. Though I find they stack up quite nicely over time.

[Nwalmenil]

Does anyone know if there's a skill calculator available for ME1 somewhere still?

 

I remember using one when I fist started out with ME1 to plan my skills as I went along.

 

Pretty sure it was at www.mass-relay.com/me1/talents/calculator but that site's down now. I'm trying to get a friend of mine to get into the series and having such a site at hand would probably help some.

[RedCaesar97]

Does anyone know if there's a skill calculator available for ME1 somewhere still?
 
I remember using one when I fist started out with ME1 to plan my skills as I went along.
 
Pretty sure it was at www.mass-relay.com/me1/talents/calculator but that site's down now. I'm trying to get a friend of mine to get into the series and having such a site at hand would probably help some.

Unfortunately no. I've looked but have not found a replacement. And my programming skills are nonexistent so I cannot create one myself as much as I want to.

Sorry.

[Nwalmenil]

Unfortunately no. I've looked but have not found a replacement. And my programming skills are nonexistent so I cannot create one myself as much as I want to.

Sorry.

 

Figured as much as I hadn't found anything myself either. Thanks though.

 

You'd think it ought to be possible. Somehow. Here's to dreaming eh?