Mass Effect - Gen. Discussion & Info - Pinnacle Station DLC Now Available 400pts

[quote name='thorbahn3']why would you avoid something you paid $5.00 extra bucks for anyway?[/QUOTE]

Not following you there, man. I wouldn't download the DLC on this playthrough if it makes the achs harder. If it makes them easier than I would right away. And if I did download it obviously I wouldn't avoid it. I will download the DLC, regardless, for a new playthrough later - though if it looks like there will be 5 packs I may wait a bit for at least a few more of them to show up so I can hit them all at once.

I just have the Katamari downloads in the back of my head - they made the 100% completion thing nearly impossible. They added more items and my completion percentage thus went down. I was only 2 items short in the original game and after the DLC I found those but I can't find a couple of the new ones.
 
While I'm glad to hear the DLC is finally heading out the door, I'll wait a bit for player reviews on it first. Even if I really like Mass Effect and Bioware, it's really hard for me to bite on downloadable content, especially on release.
 
[quote name='Indiana']Did anyone else find this game to be short? I finished after less than 14 hours.[/QUOTE]

:whistle2:s

I'm at 25 hours, and just landed on Virmire.
 
My first playthrough took about 30 hours, but I also made an effort to do everything I could. Really, though, if you just do the story missions, you could easily clock the game in at 14 or significantly below.


I'm excited about DLC, but not the date. See, I have to be frank here... Mass Effect was BY FAR by game of the year, even going into my top 5 of all-time. However, the day that DLC gets released, I know I'm not going to be playing it, since my ass is going to be playing Smash Brothers.

Different systems? Sure. I'd still think it'd be something to avoid, though.
 
[quote name='Indiana']Did anyone else find this game to be short? I finished after less than 14 hours.[/QUOTE]

Took me 35 hours.

You didn't do many side missions did you?
 
[quote name='Indiana']Did anyone else find this game to be short? I finished after less than 14 hours.[/quote]

I guess someone didn't get the completionist achievement.
 
I got completionist and both ally achs in my first playthrough, which took me 35 hrs.

My second, w/ a new biotic on hardcore diff. took me 29 (got both ally achs and leveled up to 56).
 
You can finish the game in like 8-12 hours if you're starting a second playthrouth with the same character and don't do any side quests.

Anyways, I hope the DLC isn't just 5 paks. I think they'll release some with 25, 10 or even 5 achivement points. Something like a new shop on the Citidel that carries new exclusive gear for 80 MS points. Then maybe you get 5 achivement points for charming the clerk into giving a discount.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Took me 35 hours.

You didn't do many side missions did you?[/QUOTE]

35 hours for me as well.

Like I said earlier in the thread, people who don't bother with side quests really shouldn't bother with this game. Other than maybe just renting it.

It's over too quick, and you miss too much, to pay full price to just blow through it.
 
[quote name='Wolve11']I guess someone didn't get the completionist achievement.[/QUOTE]

No, I pretty much headed to the locations that the characters recommended I go to. I took the direct route and I was suprised that my character could kill off the final guy since others were saying they had 2x the number of hours in the game.
 
*long time no post*

Actualy Mass Effect has a special spawning system. The difficulty of the creatures not only depends on how far you are in on the game but also your level and party strength. So in effect if you steamroll through the main plot and youre only like level 15 then Sarus's difficulty will be altered to a more resonable level....

i think.....
 
Yeah. Bosses scale to your level. Not sure about normal enemies. But it says bosses scale in the difficulty select screen or the manual (can't remember where I saw it).
 
[quote name='Indiana']No, I pretty much headed to the locations that the characters recommended I go to. I took the direct route and I was suprised that my character could kill off the final guy since others were saying they had 2x the number of hours in the game.[/QUOTE]

Sorry double post, but it'd really suck if bosses weren't scaled as there isn't a way back after Ilos. I suppose it's storytelling first off, and you're allowed to do as much or as little as you choose (You are a Spectre after all).
 
I got completionist with 23 hours played, but no Ally achievements. I'm working on my second playthrough now, and it's def a lot faster since I know what I need for missions and what I can skip.
 
Was I not supposed to do Feros first? Because I decided it to be my first planet after the citadel. Maybe I just suck, but it is insanely hard. Right now I'm at the part with a
repulsively large plant thing (Thorian?)
 
[quote name='Bloodbooger']Could this get added to the main post? I guess I shouldn't be so lazy, but when the topic name changes I kind of expect to find the info right away.

$5 for DLC sounds great, unless it's another rehash colony. Battarians are ugly.[/QUOTE]


updated slightly ;)
 
I just
interacted with the thing on Ilos. Guess the end is coming up soon. BTW, I beat the horde in the Armature, then I reactivated the Armatures. Any point to that?
 
[quote name='Azumangaman']Was I not supposed to do Feros first? Because I decided it to be my first planet after the citadel. Maybe I just suck, but it is insanely hard. Right now I'm at the part with a
repulsively large plant thing (Thorian?)
[/QUOTE]

Each mission has
A boss fight like that. They're pretty tough, you can do the first 3 in any order though
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']I just
interacted with the thing on Ilos. Guess the end is coming up soon. BTW, I beat the horde in the Armature, then I reactivated the Armatures. Any point to that?
[/QUOTE]

I was wondering the same thing. By the time you have enough time to deal with them, they seem useless ;).

Anyway, took me exactly 40 hours (40:00) to finish the first time. Note that I tried to do every last damn little thing I could before I went to the endgame. To me, for an RPG, that is damn short. But then I don't really consider this an RPG - it is an action/shooting game with light RPG elements.

My second playthrough (same character, but trying to get ally achs) will be much shorter though. For one thing, I'm skipping driving around to each corner of every world which I did the first time. I'm hoping to get the ally achs without the mineral exploration part, which should cut out a few hours at least just by itself.
 
BioWare's recent announcement of Mass Effect DLC has plenty of us frothing at the...mouths, but MTV points out that there's a pretty large catch to accessing the 90 new minutes of combat. To partake, the update resets your character back to the beginning of the game. Then you need to play through all of the Citadel storyline until you reach your ship (the Normandy) to access the galactic map (where you can actually engage with the mission). Sure, speedy players can get through this content in about 30 minutes (while for others it could take an hour+), but most of us would probably prefer a more directly accessible option. What do you think? Did BioWare screw up here? Or are RPG players used to wasting their time?
 
That's annoying.

I suppose you'd also have to to the whole Artemis Tau mission if you wanted Liara in your squad, too.
 
[quote name='blueweltall']Does that mean that your level will reset too?[/QUOTE]

I would hope not. Hopefully it's handled similarly to when you finish the game and restart with your same career.
 
[quote name='Logg']To partake, the update resets your character back to the beginning of the game.[/QUOTE]

Um, no, that's not true.

The DLC puts a new scenario in the galactic wild. You can only access it while you have control of the Normandy before the game world gets locked down by the plot.

The writer at MTV is lamenting the fact that they play an RPG without using multiple saves, and having finished the game, they cannot access the content without starting a new game and getting far enough to gain access to it. You cannot do any sidequests once you finish the main plot, so expecting the DLC sidequests to be available is somewhat odd.

If you have a save file from anywhere between leaving the Citadel and going to Ilos, you can play the DLC as soon as you load the game up.
 
[quote name='kojubat']Um, no, that's not true.

The DLC puts a new scenario in the galactic wild. You can only access it while you have control of the Normandy before the game world gets locked down by the plot.

The writer at MTV is lamenting the fact that they play an RPG without using multiple saves, and having finished the game, they cannot access the content without starting a new game and getting far enough to gain access to it. You cannot do any sidequests once you finish the main plot, so expecting the DLC sidequests to be available is somewhat odd.

If you have a save file from anywhere between leaving the Citadel and going to Ilos, you can play the DLC as soon as you load the game up.[/QUOTE]

This seems to be contrary to what it says, that you have to restart a new game in order to unlock the new content.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']OK, when you beat Saren, you select 'Start New Game' to play again using your levelled character? Don't want to mess anything up.[/QUOTE]

Ya, and eventually it lets you choose your old character rather than creating a new one.
 
I get so frustrated with this game's poor auto save feature. I have literally shelved my second play through about twice for a few days because I'm so pissed about losing significant time. The game is really enjoyable, but I hate having to save every 5 minutes, especially when some of the deaths I've experienced have been absolutely ridiculous. On Noveria yesterday I got headshotted by a sniper across the map. Literally dropped dead with two consecutive sniper shots out of nowhere, seriously...
 
[quote name='lordwow']I get so frustrated with this game's poor auto save feature. I have literally shelved my second play through about twice for a few days because I'm so pissed about losing significant time. The game is really enjoyable, but I hate having to save every 5 minutes, especially when some of the deaths I've experienced have been absolutely ridiculous. On Noveria yesterday I got headshotted by a sniper across the map. Literally dropped dead with two consecutive sniper shots out of nowhere, seriously...[/quote]

I completely agree lordwow and have voiced the same exact complaint in this thread a few pages back.

It would be better if they had absolutely NO autosave feature at all. At least then you would be used to being self reliant on saving yourself and adjust accordingly.

The way it is now "kindof"works which means there is little motivation to save manually since the next autosave might be jsut around the corner. I too have had to replay somewhere between 5 and 10 hours (out of around 65 hrs in two playthroughs) due to this flaw.

At least if there was no autosave you would get used to saving often but the autosave is completely broken and VERY frustrating. It's not so bad on sidequests but on the story mission it can be a bitch.


BTW for any intersted, I'm completely done with this game and don't see myself EVER getting back to it. Twice through with two different characters playing as renegade and paragon with 4 ally achs and most of the rest is good enough for me.

The only achs I'm missing are the ones for the soldier. If I did have a third in me it would be as a new soldier character on Insane, which may be too hard for me bear.
 
The Bring Down the Sky downloadable content pack will be released to Xbox LIVE Marketplace on Monday, March 10 at 2 a.m. PST, and will be available for 400 MS points. This is the first in a series of planned downloadable content that further expands the Mass Effect universe and continues the adventures of Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew. Check out a pair of screenshots from Bring Down the Sky.
Click to expand...

From the Bioware newsletter. =)
 
I am about 3+ hours in and I have no idea what the hell is going on. I'm getting my ass handed to me in battles and I don't really have a clue what to do. I stumbled into becoming a Spectre though - they must not have high standards...
 
I love this game so far.

About 10 1/2 hours in and I'm already addicted to doing side-quests.

I haven't even started my 2nd planet after you leave Citadel (for the first time). I finished one and decided to spend the rest of the time doing side-quests, level grinding and finding new armor/weapons.
 
Yea the new downloadable content looks awesome and I can't wait for it to be released. I've totally been done with this game but this will add some new needed life.
 
[quote name='javeryh']I am about 3+ hours in and I have no idea what the hell is going on. I'm getting my ass handed to me in battles and I don't really have a clue what to do. I stumbled into becoming a Spectre though - they must not have high standards...[/quote]

Do those citadel sidequests and you'll level up several times. Carry a balanced squad with you too, this helps.

You also may want to focus on sidquests before heading to story missions, as the loot, and levels gained from doing sidequests really make the main story missions much easier.
 
[quote name='pittpizza']Do those citadel sidequests and you'll level up several times. Carry a balanced squad with you too, this helps.

You also may want to focus on sidquests before heading to story missions, as the loot, and levels gained from doing sidequests really make the main story missions much easier.[/quote]

I just don't understand how leveling up, inventory management or really anything else works.

I'm also switching squads all the time. I started with two humans then I ditched the guy for Garrus and then I ditched him for some weird gray chick with goggles and then I ditched the human girl for a lizard with a deep voice. How do you know who to keep with you? Should I just pick a squad and stick with it? Any recommendations?

I have also found several places to buy items/equipment but I don't have even close to the amount of money they are asking.

Maybe I need to play more but this game just throws you into the mix and doesn't explain a thing.

So far I've become a Spectre and I helped Emily Wong with some research. I also got money for killing Fist from Wrex(?) - I think that might have been part of the main story...
 
Look at their classes (or the party strength graphs).

Assuming you're the default Shepherd, you'll be a soldier. So you'll want some one strong on Biotics (the other human male or Liara when you get her) and some one strong on Tech stuff (Tali or Garrus) to have a well rounded party.

As for leveling up, just do side quests, and kill everything to get EXP. Then check your character screen when you level up and distribute the points to the categories you want each time for every character.

The game does take a while to figure out, it could have used some tutorials like the final fantasy games to walk you through all this stuff the first time.
 
[quote name='javeryh']I just don't understand how leveling up, inventory management or really anything else works.

I'm also switching squads all the time. I started with two humans then I ditched the guy for Garrus and then I ditched him for some weird gray chick with goggles and then I ditched the human girl for a lizard with a deep voice. How do you know who to keep with you? Should I just pick a squad and stick with it? Any recommendations?

I have also found several places to buy items/equipment but I don't have even close to the amount of money they are asking.

Maybe I need to play more but this game just throws you into the mix and doesn't explain a thing.

So far I've become a Spectre and I helped Emily Wong with some research. I also got money for killing Fist from Wrex(?) - I think that might have been part of the main story...[/quote]

As far as leveling goes, you'll know you leveled up whenit happens, you basically jsut have to allocate the skill points in whichever tree you want them in, there really is no one right way to do this, it's totally up to you.

By balanced squad, I mean you typically would want a biotic, an engineer, and a soldier, or some combo of ppl with all those skills. If you keep the same two squadmates and do the vast majority of sidequest you get an "ally achievement" for having them with you. You can't switch em out though or you may not do enough sidequests with that ally to get the ach. Garrus and Wrex are great to play with as a biotic, they say really great stuff and look cool too. The squad you choose depends on what class your character is. Obviously if your a soldier you want to stay away from Ashley (figureativley, you can still bang her) b/c having two combat specialists doesnt leave enoguh room for biotic and tech abilities.

You and Dmaul are totally right about the blatant lack of a tutorial. I too was new to RPG's when i first got this but trust me, by the time you're level 25-30 (not really that far away) you get the hang of it and you get better.

Another tip is to use the RBumper alot. HOld it in and look around, select your squad's abilities to use adn press A to get em to use it. It pauses battle and lets you strategize and use crowd control.

Also don't forget to heal ("Y') and use grenades. I always forgot to use grenades.

As far as money goes, just do sidequests and sell your stuff, you'll get cash quick and soon will most likely max out your credits (9,999,999).
 
[quote name='javeryh']How do you know who to keep with you? Should I just pick a squad and stick with it? Any recommendations?[/QUOTE]

If you're going for the ally achievements, you need to pick two, and keep them the whole time. And make sure you have at one tech specialist in your party.
 
Started this on Monday, and I'm already 14 hours in and hopelessly addicted.

Favorite part of the game: Renegade points. I love being an asshole to everyone I meet. :D Though I kinda regret
wiping out the Rachni
. The things I do for +25 Renegade... Ah, well, I'll do a second play though as a pure nice character to see if it changes anything.

Most hated part: the fucking nigh worthless autosave. :bomb: This is why I LIKE having save points in JRPG's: they remind you to manually save.

I'm doing my whole first game with a soldier Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex (although I swapped Liana in for the Noveria portion, I've done virtually every other quest and sidequest thus far with those two).

And to ask: is there any part where you have to sacrifice one of your characters? If so, when does it occur, just so I don't lose an ally achievement by accident?
 
[quote name='Azumangaman']Was I not supposed to do Feros first? Because I decided it to be my first planet after the citadel. Maybe I just suck, but it is insanely hard. Right now I'm at the part with a
repulsively large plant thing (Thorian?)
[/quote]

I did Feros first. I found it to be pretty easy, but those zombie whatevers were annoying as hell because of their numbers.
 
[quote name='Callandor']
And to ask: is there any part where you have to sacrifice one of your characters? If so, when does it occur, just so I don't lose an ally achievement by accident?[/quote]

Yeah it sounds like you got the ME bug Callandor. You're averaging 5 hours a day!

Anyway to answer your question, it may be too late for whoever you swapped out to sub in liara for the noveria mission. You have to do almost the entire game (including side quests) with the same character to get the ally ach. For liara, i got the ach right before the last boss fight of the game and I used her on almost every single mission there was.

My advice if you're concerned about the ally ach and don't want to redo Noveria: do every single sidequest there is with the two ally's you want the ach for. I don't mean most, I mean EVERY single one. You may still get it. You don't have to worry about losing an ally (without spoiling anythign:) as there are ways around it.
 
Well, I'll probably miss the ally achievement for Wrex, then. And I've done too many sidequests with Wrex to switch to Liara at this point. Oh, well. Maybe I'll do a 4th play though one day...

Ah, screw it. I'll swap to Liara and hope I get lucky. Maybe I'll have just enough side quests left. According to a gamefaqs guide, you need to complete 15 missions and 45 assignments with a character to get the achievement. I might be able to do just that many with Liara now; Wrex is out since I did all the Noveria missions with Liara. I need to do some counting when I get home. It seems there are a total of 59 sidequests in the game (60, if both 75% Paragon and 75% Renegade are possible in the same game, though I highly doubt that).

Bioware and their ambiguous "majority" wording...
 
[quote name='pittpizza']
Anyway to answer your question, it may be too late for whoever you swapped out to sub in liara for the noveria mission. You have to do almost the entire game (including side quests) with the same character to get the ally ach. For liara, i got the ach right before the last boss fight of the game and I used her on almost every single mission there was.

My advice if you're concerned about the ally ach and don't want to redo Noveria: do every single sidequest there is with the two ally's you want the ach for. I don't mean most, I mean EVERY single one. You may still get it. You don't have to worry about losing an ally (without spoiling anythign:) as there are ways around it.[/QUOTE]

I switched Wrex out for Liara during Noveria and did EVERY sidequest and I still didn't get the Wrex achievement. What sucks is that there really isn't any difference bringing Liara along even though the other characters tell you to - I think Benezia says one thing about her and then otherwise it is exactly the same. On my second playthrough I got Ash *really* early (before even doing Virmire) and then wrapped up Garrus during Virmire, and I didn't even do all the sidequests. It looks like you need 15 story missions and 35 sidequests to get the ally achievements. Someone here said 45 before but that definitely isn't the case as I had exactly 35 when I got the Ash one. Unless it gets easier with the New Game+ or Hardcore difficulty? That actually makes sense as I would think I had 35 with Wrex the first time and didn't get it. But GameFAQs (just saw your post Callandor) is definitely wrong as far as my situation (not sure if it is the New Game+ or the Hardcore that is changing it though).

My problem is that I'm trying to hit level 60 on this second playthrough. I got to 50 at the end of my first one and then started up the New Game +. You progress pretty quickly until 56 or so and then you need a buttload of exp to go up a level. I'm not quite to 59 yet and I only have the endgame left. Vermire put me 2/3 the way from 58 to 59 and I got out and hand-killed everything (no shooting from the Mako). I'm also playing on Hardcore although that doesn't seem quite so hard any more (it was very tough in the beginning and not so bad since then).

Anyway, when I'm done with this playthrough I will have 3 of the 6 ally achs (d'oh!) but will probably have to play a bit of a third game to hit level 60. We'll see. Then I still have some of the weapon ones (assault/sniper) and a few tech/biotic ones. I'll wait for more of the DLC to appear (more than just this one) and then start a completely new game for those. I'm getting sick of my same character ;).

One thing I read in this month's GI - they said ME 2 will look at your save file and modify the universe based on decisions you made in your playthough. Here's a potential problem - on my original game I played for Paragon points and would want that to be how ME 2 continues. But on my New Game + with the same character I went through getting the Renegade stuff done. How will it decide what to do in that case? I guess I could delete the game saves after I restarted (once I wrap up level 60).
 
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