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Reizo Ryuu · Mar 30, 2017

nvm wrong thread.

edit: while I'm in here anyway.

I really love how "adventurous" the SP is, I got the same feeling with AC black flag. Heck I love how a lot of ryder's dialogue options are these full on adventure spirit type of answers, it's like they were written for me personally.
Shepard was just this hero type military guy, Ryder really feels like an explorer.

Maledict · Mar 30, 2017

Dany said:
How fucking shitty. I really liked what they did with DA:I, so i was hoping for something akin to that. What a shame. I'll still bone Reye tho.

Oh, that's another one. Male Ryder romance with Reye uses the female Ryder body animations and text. Ryder gets referred to as Queen at one point, and his body animations are totally unsuited because it's clear the female Ryder animation set.

AyzOn · Mar 30, 2017

Reizo Ryuu said:
nvm wrong thread.

edit: while I'm in here anyway.

I really love how "adventurous" the SP is, I got the same feeling with AC black flag. Heck I love how a lot of ryder's dialogue options are these full on adventure spirit type of answers, it's like they were written for me personally.
Shepard was just this hero type military guy, Ryder really feels like an explorer.

It works most of the time but it often misses the mark in high stake situations though, whenever there are people about to die/species about to be wiped out, they´ll crack a joke. I wish they had done better than that or just have chosen a more lighthearted overarching plot then

the possible murder of basically all life in that cluster.

What I actually wanted to ask, does the downloadable OST include the songs that you can play in your private quarters on the Tempest? if not, any idea where I could get those?

Renekton · Mar 30, 2017

Tigersprite said:
Has anyone noticed how high quality the final romance animations are? I've watched Cora and Suvi's now, and in both the facial animations and bodily animations are very noticeably better than at any other point in the game?

See, I saw this on Reddit and I'm also very curious about the answer now.

Rumor says she was

changed to bisexual last minute at the VA's request, so they cut out the scene with Scott because they had no time to do Sara's

CrichtonKicks · Mar 30, 2017

Patryn said:
Things I suspect they'll do:

- Lay out a timeline for patches. Nothing too specific, I'm thinking something akin to what SE did with Final Fantasy XV. I suspect a heavy focus on animation improvements.

- Adjust a small number of specific faces. For instance, I fully expect that they'll make changes to Addison's face

- Outline the changes to the Character Creator. We've known since Day 1 that they were looking into improving that, and I suspect we'll learn exactly how then

- Introduce a ship storage system. This is a minor thing, but based on Twitter feeds I know that it's one they're looking at. Honestly, this is one of the more baffling problems with the game, because pretty much every Dragon Age game has had the same problem and they keep needing to do this post-release patch of introducing a storage chest. When will they learn?

- Address the M/M romance controversy. I suspect that the first (only?) story DLC is being adjusted to include a deeper one

Then if I had one off-the-wall guess that I think is unlikely but maybe possible:

- Announce a free DLC for the Salarian squadmember, who was cut during production. I figure they'll probably offer up some form of free single-player DLC, and given how the firestorm covers the entire game and not just the ending it's not an Extended Edition situation, so it has to be more general. And I doubt they'd be willing to do the rumored

Quarian Ark

as a free DLC given it's probably targeted as a $15 DLC, and that's quite a hit.

I also anticipate that it'll be a "The first major patch hits NOW!" situation.

Yeah, this feels pretty realistic. I figure they target Addison and a few other scenes that are pretty meme-worthy but a game-wide animation overhaul is way too much to expect.

I also thiink they may work a bit on species diversity, especially the Asari.

Tigersprite · Mar 30, 2017

Renekton said:
Rumor says she was

changed to bisexual last minute at the VA's request, so they cut out the scene with Scott because they had no time to do Sara's

Interesting.

Hopefully they'll have both in later then.

Maledict · Mar 30, 2017

I wonder if EA are getting sick and tired of having to do emergency PR firefighting whenever they release a ME game, and commit extra resources to fixing them. I know that sounds silly, but this is the second time they've had to do it now and I wonder if that's going to factor into their decision making on the possibility of a next game,

DeadlyParasite · Mar 30, 2017

I'm not entirely sure what you constitute as an emergency in this situation, launch week has come and gone. The damage is done and irreversible.

If a person doesn't like the game at this point nothing is going to change that fact in spite of whatever they do in terms of PR, patches, and fixes. You'll never sway the opinion of someone who is frothing with rage at every aspect of the game from writing to gameplay. Their mind is set, PR won't work.

(It also ignores the fact that despite whatever colossal development failures there may have been during the past 5 years EA as a publisher willingly saw the final product and signed off on it, probably to make the deadline for this fiscal quarter. The onus is on them and they should only be directing their frustrations at themselves).

CrichtonKicks · Mar 30, 2017

Maledict said:
I wonder if EA are getting sick and tired of having to do emergency PR firefighting whenever they release a ME game, and commit extra resources to fixing them. I know that sounds silly, but this is the second time they've had to do it now and I wonder if that's going to factor into their decision making on the possibility of a next game,

I think there is a good argument to be made that Bioware's fanbase tends to be very forgiving as long as post-release content provides good support. ME2, ME3, and DA:I are much better games in their one year later, content complete stage than they were at release. So there may be an internal expectation that Bioware fans are forgiving as long as post-release support is good so its okay to push things out even if it is a bit undercooked, especially given how much they can charge for all of that DLC.

Initial Bioware releases are a bit of a rough draft. Then they take on feedback on what fans liked and didn't like and tailor the DLC which results in Lair of the Shadow Broker, Citadel, and Trespasser.

I think ME:A's reaction may change that attitude a fair bit though. People's concerns can't be corrected with a quality DLC.

Dany · Mar 30, 2017

Maledict said:
Oh, that's another one. Male Ryder romance with Reye uses the female Ryder body animations and text. Ryder gets referred to as Queen at one point, and his body animations are totally unsuited because it's clear the female Ryder animation set.

... that is so bad

Heckler456 · Mar 31, 2017

55 hours, 44% complete. Taking my sweet-ass time with this game. Still really enjoying myself, however, on insanity, that

Kett base on Eos

was kind of bullshit. Enemies just straight up spawning right in front of you. Not great.

That being said though, I'm really liking the gameplay in general now. Got a good flow going, starting to get some more profiles specced up. It's fun. The story's pretty great as well. I still have the 2 last planets pretty much to go, along with the main story, and some cleanup on the 3 first ones. I just love all of the little stories you encounter. Liam's loyalty mission was pretty amazing.

Gonna keep chipping away at it from now on, what with Persona 5 on the near horizon.

prag16 · Mar 31, 2017

30% in 29 hours. This is my GoTY so far, beating out Horizon. It's a shame there are so many fuckups littered about because this really could have been a masterpiece. Definitely feels like a true ME1 successor (though I probably enjoyed ME1 the least of the trilogy).

With my late start here it looks like I have my work cut out for me to repeat my top 10 wall of shame placement for OT2.

CrichtonKicks said:
Yeah, this feels pretty realistic. I figure they target Addison and a few other scenes that are pretty meme-worthy but a game-wide animation overhaul is way too much to expect.

I also thiink they may work a bit on species diversity, especially the Asari.

It's funny, reading the tie in novel, I just can't take Addison seriously at all. I picture that horrendous tired-faced mug and start cracking up.

Thankfully she had a pretty minor role in the game.

Tigersprite · Mar 31, 2017

63 hours, 86% completion, and I've finally finished the main quest + reached a stage of completion I'm happy with. I loved the final mission. What a mixed bag this game was, without the glitches and the lack of polish this game really would have reviewed so much better - another 6 to 9 months and I reckon it would have been glowing across the board.

As it is, I loved my time with it, and especially the companions along for the journey. Absolutely loved all the companions by the end (or at least liked them, in the case of Liam). Probably an 8/10, or a 7.5 if feeling less generous - again, if only it had more time to be polished.

prag16 · Apr 2, 2017

33 hours in and the filler is definitely grating on me a bit. Some shaded of DA:I as we know. Luckily in this game it's easier to disregard the inconsequential shit. The ones that have you traveling all over the cluster just to stop off for 10 seconds at each location are especially irritating.

Probably sticking to loyalty and main planet quests from here, before I go after the Archon.

In a lot of ways this game is easily better than anything from the trilogy so as I previously said it's a shame they had to screw up so many things minority to moderately, obscuring the great game underneath.

Bisnic · Apr 2, 2017

I think it would help a lot if they add a "skip" button when traveling from one planet to another. Or make it so that we don't leave the planet everytime we enter the Tempest.

Renekton · Apr 2, 2017

Waiting for the 0404 announcement.

Lots of glitches and bugs to be fixed pronto.

prag16 · Apr 2, 2017

Bisnic said:
I think it would help a lot if they add a "skip" button when traveling from one planet to another. Or make it so that we don't leave the planet everytime we enter the Tempest.

That's a big one. Quality of life issues like this are well within the scope of what can and should be fixed. We'll see what they do.

Patryn · Apr 2, 2017

Renekton said:
Waiting for the 0404 announcement.

Lots of glitches and bugs to be fixed pronto.

Don't expect "pronto" and you won't be disappointed.

I'm going into this expecting minimal and minor fixes hitting in a few months at best, and I figure I'll be happy with whatever they announce.

Let it not be forgotten that the Extended Cut for Mass Effect 3 took about 3.5 months to come out, so if there is an equivalent "major" patch I'd put the timeframe somewhere between 3-6 months.

Bisnic said:
I think it would help a lot if they add a "skip" button when traveling from one planet to another. Or make it so that we don't leave the planet everytime we enter the Tempest.

Given that I suspect they're hiding loads in those animations, can they really skip them?

Bisnic · Apr 2, 2017

Patryn said:
Don't expect "pronto" and you won't be disappointed.

I'm going into this expecting minimal and minor fixes hitting in a few months at best, and I figure I'll be happy with whatever they announce.

Let it not be forgotten that the Extended Cut for Mass Effect 3 took about 3.5 months to come out, so if there is an equivalent "major" patch I'd put the timeframe somewhere between 3-6 months.

Given that I suspect they're hiding loads in those animations, can they really skip them?

For the Tempest maybe, but for planets? I mean it's just a planet and a description. It doesn't need a 10-15 secs loading each when the original games could do it without.

Patryn · Apr 2, 2017

Bisnic said:
For the Tempest maybe, but for planets? I mean it's just a planet and a description. It doesn't need a 10-15 secs loading each when the original games could do it without.

Old games were on UE. We know they had issues with Frostbite. It's entirely possible that they do need them.

CrichtonKicks · Apr 2, 2017

The starscapes are real 3D objects present in the normal Tempest view so there is clearly some loading needed but it does seem like an excessive time if loading is indeed the culprit.

X-Frame · Apr 2, 2017

Bisnic said:
For the Tempest maybe, but for planets? I mean it's just a planet and a description. It doesn't need a 10-15 secs loading each when the original games could do it without.

I'm seriously hoping the planet transits are sped up considerably with the first patch. Allow to skip the transitions, no more arriving at the planet/destination and having it zoom in and hold for 3 seconds and then zoom back out -- just take that out completely.

Mindlog · Apr 2, 2017

I really have no problem with the current setup, but I've avoided scanning more than one cluster between destinations. I appreciate what they were trying to accomplish even if the scale of objects still bothers me.

wesleyshark · Apr 2, 2017

So this just happened. Lol. And my game froze after this cutscene and I had to replay the last section of the loyalty mission. Smh.

Maledict · Apr 2, 2017

There's a *lot* of bugs with that cut scene - numerous people having the same issue. Given that it was one of the first cut scenes they showed some time ago, when it looked a hell of a lot better and had proper lightning and effects, I'm wondering if they had to rebuild it from scratch in a hurry and that's why so many people have bugs with it.

wesleyshark · Apr 2, 2017

Maledict said:
There's a *lot* of bugs with that cut scene - numerous people having the same issue. Given that it was one of the first cut scenes they showed some time ago, when it looked a hell of a lot better and had proper lightning and effects, I'm wondering if they had to rebuild it from scratch in a hurry and that's why so many people have bugs with it.

Makes sense, if so. I took a couple videos because I couldn't stop laughing at how absurd it all looked. Characters talking and their mouths not moving, also.

prag16 · Apr 2, 2017

Patryn said:
Old games were on UE. We know they had issues with Frostbite. It's entirely possible that they do need them.

Might be why they don't allow you to board the Tempest without flying up into orbit. Doesn't make it less irritating.

But the worst of it is definitely flying planet to planet trying to 100% each system. I've essentially stopped doing that when not required to for a quest.

CrichtonKicks · Apr 2, 2017

prag16 said:
Might be why they don't allow you to board the Tempest without flying up into orbit. Doesn't make it less irritating.

It's definitely why you can't board it on the ground. Since the outside exists as an actual 3D space that you can view threw the Tempest they would have to recreate every planet landing zone in the game. It was probably on the drawing board at some point but scrapped for time.

To be fair, though, the series pretty much has always forced you into orbit every time you board the ship in a hub.

Reizo Ryuu · Apr 2, 2017

Worst thing about the engine is how melee is handled.
I really hate how busted melee lock on is, or how you can just clip right through an enemy because the melee moves you forward, so now he's behind you.

Or how it's always directed at the where the character is looking instead of where the camera is pointing, so even if you sweep to an enemy to your right, have the cursor right on top of them and then hit melee, the camera just swings forward and you punch air because the character lags behind to where the cursor actually is...*sigh*

I don't understand how they borked this up so badly, melee lockon in me3mp was fucking flawless

Notice how she slides towards the enemy and then stops when in range for the hit...

Patryn · Apr 2, 2017

Reizo Ryuu said:
Worst thing about the engine is how melee is handled.
I really hate how busted melee lock on is, or how you can just clip right through an enemy because the melee moves you forward, so now he's behind you.

Or how it's always directed at the where the character is looking instead of where the camera is pointing, so even if you sweep to an enemy to your right, have the cursor right on top of them and then hit melee, the camera just swings forward and you punch air because the character lags behind to where the cursor actually is...*sigh*

I don't understand how they borked this up so badly, melee lockon in me3mp was fucking flawless

Notice how she slides towards the enemy and then stops when in range for the hit...

What I dislike about the melee is that it's allowed me to pass through closed doors a few times. I'm currently using an Asari Sword, and the teleport has taken me past a few obstacles that I was supposed to solve puzzles to open.

So I've been progressing slowly through the game, and the limitations of the character creator system just smacked me right in the face.

See, I just met Reyes. And swear to god he looks almost exactly like my Ryder. Same basic face, same hairstyle. My eye and hair colors are different, and I did some small tweaking of the facial features, but ugh.

Reizo Ryuu · Apr 2, 2017

That seems like an oversight in SP, the sword teleport was previously only available on the N7 slayer and N7 Fury, and the strength of it was the fact that they could bypass walls with it.

I guess they should've made some doors untraversable by teleport if they really wanted you to finish the puzzle.

diaspora · Apr 2, 2017

Vetra is 2sweet4me

wesleyshark · Apr 2, 2017

After 58hrs so far, I gotta say: having to fly back and forth between planets is excruciating. The time it takes up is entirely obnoxious.

chaislip3 · Apr 2, 2017

wesleyshark said:
After 58hrs so far, I gotta say: having to fly back and forth between planets is excruciating. The time it takes up is entirely obnoxious.

Yeah, if you haven't gotten the "Contagion" and "Truth and Trespass" quests yet, I'd recommend staying FAR away from them if you don't like the planet hopping. Those quests in particular are awful in that regard.

Also, I'm thinking of doing a New Game + run. Should I stick with Scott or try Sara out?

JeffG · Apr 2, 2017

chaislip3 said:
Yeah, if you haven't gotten the "Contagion" and "Truth and Trespass" quests yet, I'd recommend staying FAR away from them if you don't like the planet hopping. Those quests in particular are awful in that regard.

Also, I'm thinking of doing a New Game + run. Should I stick with Scott or try Sara out?

Sara is awesome

Heckler456 · Apr 2, 2017

chaislip3 said:
Yeah, if you haven't gotten the "Contagion" and "Truth and Trespass" quests yet, I'd recommend staying FAR away from them if you don't like the planet hopping. Those quests in particular are awful in that regard.

Also, I'm thinking of doing a New Game + run. Should I stick with Scott or try Sara out?

I'm really enjoying Sara, fwiw. I'm also definitely doing a Scot playthrough in like a year's time.

chaislip3 · Apr 2, 2017

JeffG said:
Sara is awesome

Yeah, I was leaning that way. Might as well play both perspectives

eliza0224 · Apr 2, 2017

Reyes should be a squadmate. Boo!

prag16 · Apr 3, 2017

Heckler456 said:
I'm really enjoying Sara, fwiw. I'm also definitely doing a Scot playthrough in like a year's time.

Despite the slightly derpy face on the default model, I'm liking Sara a lot. I'll probably do a NG+ Scott run as soon as I finish my current run. But might finish Horizon in between.

Patryn · Apr 3, 2017

prag16 said:
Despite the slightly derpy face on the default model, I'm liking Sara a lot. I'll probably do a NG+ Scott run as soon as I finish my current run. But might finish Horizon in between.

I'm saving my second run for when all the patches are finished, so probably in about 6 months.

But at the rate I'm going, I won't be done for another month.

Also, Reyes looking almost exactly like my Ryder continues to be unnerving.

EDIT: Random, but the image on this article looks like something from Voeld.

prag16 · Apr 3, 2017

Patryn said:
I'm saving my second run for when all the patches are finished, so probably in about 6 months.

But at the rate I'm going, I won't be done for another month.

Also, Reyes looking almost exactly like my Ryder continues to be unnerving.

EDIT: Random, but the image on this article looks like something from Voeld.

Good call. Waiting for patches isn't a bad idea. Though between finishing this and Horizon at the rate I play that could be a while anyhow.

Patryn · Apr 3, 2017

Speaking of patches, I think I've hit the banter bug. I just reach Kadera and was rolling with Drack and Vetra and they weren't saying shit. It's possible I was being impatient, but when I was exploring Voeld, Vetra and Cora would not shut up.

Thinking about holding off on playing more until Tuesday, when I think the patch fixing that bug gets fixed.

wesleyshark · Apr 3, 2017

Beat the final mission... That was actually a strong finish for what was a somewhat rough journey to get there. In every way, the final mission felt like mass effect to me. I'm glad it ended on a high note in that regard- it doesn't forgive the rocky patches, but it definitely reflects favorably.

FWIW I'm at 90% completion, at 61+hrs.

Cranster · Apr 3, 2017

So if this is true how does Bioware/EA not see the irony (and idiocy) of not outsourcing the remaster of the oriignal trilogy but seem perfectly fine with outsourcing work on the newest entry in the IP?

Heckler456 · Apr 3, 2017

Cranster said:
So if this is true how does Bioware/EA not see the irony (and idiocy) of not outsourcing the remaster of the oriignal trilogy but seem perfectly fine with outsourcing work on the newest entry in the IP?

You always outsource work for game development. Counts mostly for animation and asset creation. Uncharted 4 lists like 12 other companies in their credits to which they outsourced iirc. Same for Horizon, for example. Literally every large development does this.

That being said, what are you talking about in this case? I don't think the video every mentions "outsourcing".

Cranster · Apr 3, 2017

Heckler456 said:
You always outsource work for game development. Counts mostly for animation and asset creation. Uncharted 4 lists like 12 other companies in their credits to which they outsourced iirc. Same for Horizon, for example. Literally every large development does this.

That being said, what are you talking about in this case? I don't think the video every mentions "outsourcing".

Going by this video Bioware possibly outsourced animation work for all the human characters to another developer.

Poodlestrike · Apr 3, 2017

Cranster said:
Going by this video Bioware possibly outsourced animation work for all the human characters to another developer.

Yes... another human developer...

I just really fucking love this image and wanted an excuse to post it.

Heckler456 · Apr 3, 2017

Cranster said:
Going by this video Bioware possibly outsourced animation work for all the human characters to another developer.

Can you give me a timestamp on that? Because I didn't hear that whatsoever. The video is about the tweets from that Bioware dev who's now at Naughty Dog, and his tweets aren't about outsourcing either.

The video explains how animations like these are probably determined algorithmically, and how they probably didn't get around the doing a manual pass on all of them.

wesleyshark · Apr 3, 2017

Poodlestrike said:
Yes... another human developer...

I just really fucking love this image and wanted an excuse to post it.

Hahaha I love that

DeadlyParasite · Apr 3, 2017

Is there any truth to that figure of 40 million attributed to Andromeda's budget? If so isn't that pretty small? Why would EA skimp on funding one of their high-tier studios's projects when it's a series that's fairly-well received? I get that the Montreal studio is relatively new and that risk-aversion was probably pretty high on EA's part but it just seems so... odd?

It feels like a perfect storm where the assigned devs were stretched to capacity, the funding wasn't really there, and the entirety of BioWare were juggling how to handle their needs within Frosbite and were probably spending large portions of the past 5 years prototyping the shit out of everything to make it work.

I just hope it isn't the end because I love the shit out of Andromeda and the framework is there for an amazing sequel (great cast of characters, newly established lore, a beautiful engine, the well-handled Nomad, fun combat).

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