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Mass Effect: Andromeda releases Patch 1.05 Thursday, details more changes for future

Did they make these animations in the span of a few weeks because if it was that easy how did no one notice how bad it looked?

Of course they noticed, but they wanted your money so badly that they released it anyway.
 
I wonder if this is still the B or C team doing the fixes or if they brought in a few from the A team to help out...

all i know is, they appear to've found someone somewhere who took one look at the eyes &, being familiar with the tools, immediately knew what the problem was. because, for this to suddenly be fixed universally indicates that it was fundamentally a matter of simply tweaking something. period...
 
With this new update I am getting a lot of locked up pauses when having to hold Triangle to go into conversations. It's like the game freezes but characters still move around. But the conversation doesn't engage.
 
I'm in awe of how these tweaks that seem small on paper, have had such an enormous impact on the playability and believability of this game.


Absolutely insane..



Also, more .gifs!!!
 
Still gotta fix the painted on facial hair.

YES. The facial hair in this game is abysmal.

That's just one example and there's more which they need to fix.

About this actually, Ryder is so emotionless and exressionless during some cut-scenes and conversations, it's like she's talking with the void or looking at one spot all the time no matter what she doing or what is happeing on the screen / around her. Just check the scene with the hamster in the cargo bay and you'll know what I'm talking about. I mean, yes, the eyes and some of the scenes and animations is good now but some much else still isn't, like the stuff I've also mentioned in the previous page.

I'm very curious what this game looks like two months from now when they've finished their patches.
 
all i know is, they appear to've found someone somewhere who took one look at the eyes &, being familiar with the tools, immediately knew what the problem was. because, for this to suddenly be fixed universally indicates that it was fundamentally a matter of simply tweaking something. period...

That doesn't mean anything... Almost everything in game development is tweaking things until they look good/work well, it's an iterative process regardless of skill and tool familiarity
 
That doesn't mean anything... Almost everything in game development is tweaking things until they look good/work well, it's an iterative process regardless of skill and tool familiarity

'doesn't mean anything'? i'd say it means that whatever work was required to fix a rather glaring problem (which, as other's've mentioned, played a role in the game garnering numerous poor reviews) was relatively straight-forward & uncomplicated, & therefore should've been done pre-release...
 
'doesn't mean anything'? i'd say it means that whatever work was required to fix a rather glaring problem (which, as other's've mentioned, played a role in the game garnering numerous poor reviews) was relatively straight-forward & uncomplicated, & therefore should've been done pre-release...
No, as mentioned above, game dev is iterative and if they had something more important to do they would di that first. Doesn't matter how talented they are if they have other stuff to do first.
 
Holy shit......

But WHY NOW though ? They sent the game to die to fix it within 2 weeks.

These changes are nice but in no way does they fix the game. I'm pretty certain that critical reception would be the same if the game would've launched with these fixes included.
 
Holy shit......

But WHY NOW though ? They sent the game to die to fix it within 2 weeks.

The only explanation is that the game was completely broken until the 11th hour before release. They fixed every game-breaking thing they could to make ship date, and are now able to go in and fix the unpolished areas.
 
No, as mentioned above, game dev is iterative and if they had something more important to do they would di that first. Doesn't matter how talented they are if they have other stuff to do first.

source? as in, why is this explanation any more 'likely' than simple incompetence?...

i'm not claiming to 'know' what happened. i'm simply describing what it appears to possibly have been, based on the fact that it's already been addressed & fixed, indicating it just wasn't all that complicated to begin with...

i mean, yeah, maybe everyone was just so busy that no one had the time to do this. but, then, again: maybe not? i mean, hell, maybe no one even saw it as a problem. anything's possible :) ...
 
source? as in, why is this explanation any more 'likely' than simple incompetence?...

i'm not claiming to 'know' what happened. i'm simply describing what it appears to possibly have been, based on the fact that it's already been addressed & fixed, indicating it just wasn't all that complicated to begin with...

i mean, yeah, maybe everyone was just so busy that no one had the time to do this. but, then, again: maybe not? i mean, hell, maybe no one even saw it as a problem. anything's possible :) ...
Former Bioware animator and current Naughty Dog employee spoke out about this on a podcast. Don't have the link handy.

But it's far more likely it wasn't "bad animators", just animators who didn't get the chance to do more passes at it. "This is what every game looks like before polish passes", the employee said.
 
'doesn't mean anything'? i'd say it means that whatever work was required to fix a rather glaring problem (which, as other's've mentioned, played a role in the game garnering numerous poor reviews) was relatively straight-forward & uncomplicated, & therefore should've been done pre-release...

You can't guess that from the information we have. For all we know they could have started working on it before release. And even if not, the fact that it's post-release versus crunch time make all the difference. They obviously have less stuff to do now, that's without taking into account the fact they might have gotten help form other studio following the backlash. There are so many factor at play... Which in turn make the "it's wasn't that hard" a huge guess.
 
You can't guess that from the information we have. For all we know they could have started working on it before release. And even if not, the fact that it's post-release versus crunch time make all the difference. They obviously have less stuff to do now, that's without taking into account the fact they might have gotten help form other studio following the backlash. There are so many factor at play... Which in turn make the "it's wasn't that hard" a huge guess.

If he is guessing then so are you.
 
Ok so am I the only one that has the game constantly crash on Xbox one when trying to resume from suspend?

They improved the animations this fast after the release, yet they shipped the game like they did. I can`t wrap my head around that.

Yup. On one hand it's really bad. On the other hand I'm at least glad they fixed it at all.
 
Former Bioware animator and current Naughty Dog employee spoke out about this on a podcast. Don't have the link handy.

But it's far more likely it wasn't "bad animators", just animators who didn't get the chance to do more passes at it. "This is what every game looks like before polish passes", the employee said.

I mean that animator had nothing to do with the development though. He is just speculating and assuming like everyone else. Why can't it be as simple as BioWare Montreal is not as capable a studio as Edmonton, coupled with EA no longer giving them any more time after 5+ years creating a frenzy where they need to do base work to get the game finished and shipped but with a mess of bugs, glitches, poor assets, cinematics etc.
 
Origin trial still hard locks / crashes for me during the cutscene after completion of the first planet. Meh.

Can someone do a comparison of that scene where the Krogan is holding a human over the ledge by his leg? That scene had super atmospheric lighting and rain in the alpha but looked shitty and flat in the final game, wonder if the patch changed anything.
 
I think Ryder looks a little better during cutscenes but i honestly cant tell the difference. Here is my experience with the game post patch. keep in mind i had zero bugs, glitches, and crashes before the patch.

- Awful performance. Pre patch it was already in the 20s due to my biotic setup which is very explosion and physics heavy as everyone and everything around me gets lifted in midair and one explosion causes multiple explosions. But now it's in the teens. And I mean low teens. Literally chugging along. I cannot even turn my character properly.

- Random freeze during planet hopping. First time i had to restart my game.

- Cutscenes triggered during load screen and i had to guess my dialogue responses on a black screen.

- on two occasions i was warped to the planet surface and had to wait for the whole thing to load.

- Fem Ryder is now a shell of her former awkward self. she is no longer expressive.i think their fix was to tone down the exaggerated facial animations but thats what gave her her personality. now she's just another blanket gruff. give me back my weirdo ryder!

I can live with small glitches but performance should not be this bad regardless of what biotic setup i choose. i can live with framerate in the 20s but 10-15 is just awful especially after i spent 40 hours experimenting and turning my weak build into a godly one.
 
You can't guess that from the information we have. For all we know they could have started working on it before release. And even if not, the fact that it's post-release versus crunch time make all the difference. They obviously have less stuff to do now, that's without taking into account the fact they might have gotten help form other studio following the backlash. There are so many factor at play... Which in turn make the "it's wasn't that hard" a huge guess.

part of what i'm positing is premised on questioning why something like this didn't happen before the backlash? i mean, you're an experienced developer with a major product on the line, & you need 'backlash' to trigger this? :) ...

again, i'm not saying there weren't many factors at play. i'm simply seeing barn doors now being closed quickly & efficiently after the horse have all left, & wondering how the farmer couldn't've understood the importance of doing this beforehand :) ...
 
I started playing yesterday with the patch so I cant really compare besides all the shots shown so far,I think the animations look okay and all...making the ''white'' of the eyes less white lol really helps,my only gripe,on the Pro,is the constant little shaking in the cutscenes,it's very subtle but its there and thats bothering me a bit but besides that,I think it looks pretty good overall.
 
part of what i'm positing is premised on questioning why something like this didn't happen before the backlash? i mean, you're an experienced developer with a major product on the line, & you need 'backlash' to trigger this? :) ...

again, i'm not saying there weren't many factors at play. i'm simply seeing barn doors now being closed quickly & efficiently after the horse have all left, & wondering how the farmer couldn't've understood the importance of doing this beforehand :) ...

Montreal isn't that experienced all thing considered even if take Edmonton supervising into account (if there was any). And backlash mean potentially more resources from you publisher which is what every non independent dev is reliant upon. I doubt no one at Bioware/EA wasn't aware of these issues but EA decide to ship regardless for whatever reason.
 
Played for three hours last night post-patch (2550k/970). (Frame of reference: Played 40 hours prior on the initial version with hardly any bad bugs/issues, and nothing at all gamebreaking.)

-Performance MAY be slightly worse; but hard to notice. I can't quite hold 60 on a mix of medium/high settings with my rig to begin with, but there may have been some more drops than usual, but part of it may have been where I was at the time;
Archon's ship with a slew of enemies onscreen and shit exploding everywhere, and fighting the architect on Kavana
.
-Holy shit do the eyes make a HUGE difference. I mean YUGE. It's subtle, but noticeable in all cutscenes, and helps substantially.
-Didn't notice much difference in most of the facial animations, but there does seem to be a bit more going on here and there; and the models look less mannequin-like even aside from the eyes. But too early to be certain.
-Not liking the "[Num 7]" etc being plastered all over the dialog wheel, and you can't turn it off? Dumb.
-Mildly annoyed that I wasted a cryopod on inventory expansion, only for this patch to totally trivialize it.

So far so good. Unfortunate that the patch seems to have impacted some people negatively.
 
I mean that animator had nothing to do with the development though. He is just speculating and assuming like everyone else. Why can't it be as simple as BioWare Montreal is not as capable a studio as Edmonton, coupled with EA no longer giving them any more time after 5+ years creating a frenzy where they need to do base work to get the game finished and shipped but with a mess of bugs, glitches, poor assets, cinematics etc.
But he worked on other Mass Effect titles, so when he says bluntly "those games start off looking just like this and then we go over them and refine them with time", I imagine the other studio does the same. I imagine MOST studios do the same. Hell, as an animator, it's what I do as well. We block in the most basic scenes and animations and then add nuance and detail LAST. ME1, ME2, and ME3 supposedly looked just like Andromeda's animations did at one point (some still do, in fact...), which is why it's likely Andromeda's team lacked the time to finish it, rather than the talent.
 
But he worked on other Mass Effect titles, so when he says bluntly "those games start off looking just like this and then we go over them and refine them with time", I imagine the other studio does the same. I imagine MOST studios do the same. Hell, as an animator, it's what I do as well. We block in the most basic scenes and animations and then add nuance and detail LAST. ME1, ME2, and ME3 supposedly looked just like Andromeda's animations did at one point (some still do, in fact...), which is why it's likely Andromeda's team lacked the time to finish it, rather than the talent.
And that is essentially it.. Shareholders/publishers (created, and...) want to ride the hype train just as much as we do, but in hopes of higher than norm returns. The devs/ people who've invested 60+ months and countless hours of their life; just want time to finish their project.

Shit who wants to be rushed when you're trying to be creative? Nobody, I hope.
 
But he worked on other Mass Effect titles, so when he says bluntly "those games start off looking just like this and then we go over them and refine them with time", I imagine the other studio does the same. I imagine MOST studios do the same. Hell, as an animator, it's what I do as well. We block in the most basic scenes and animations and then add nuance and detail LAST. ME1, ME2, and ME3 supposedly looked just like Andromeda's animations did at one point (some still do, in fact...), which is why it's likely Andromeda's team lacked the time to finish it, rather than the talent.

no. the first part of that sentence does not necessarily equal the second part. iow, no, it's no more likely a matter of time than talent...

if you know what you're doing, you do what you do more efficiently than someone who doesn't. & efficiency = time. there is no inherent reason to assume talent, & simply blame 'time', when time itself is determined by the quality of talent :) ...

i'm not labeling the montreal studio a bunch of hacks. likewise, i'm not gonna simply assume they're talented. i mean, they very likely don't assume i am, either :) ...
 
Played for three hours last night post-patch (2550k/970). (Frame of reference: Played 40 hours prior on the initial version with hardly any bad bugs/issues, and nothing at all gamebreaking.)

-Performance MAY be slightly worse; but hard to notice. I can't quite hold 60 on a mix of medium/high settings with my rig to begin with, but there may have been some more drops than usual, but part of it may have been where I was at the time;
Archon's ship with a slew of enemies onscreen and shit exploding everywhere, and fighting the architect on Kavana
.
-Holy shit do the eyes make a HUGE difference. I mean YUGE. It's subtle, but noticeable in all cutscenes, and helps substantially.
-Didn't notice much difference in most of the facial animations, but there does seem to be a bit more going on here and there; and the models look less mannequin-like even aside from the eyes. But too early to be certain.
-Not liking the "[Num 7]" etc being plastered all over the dialog wheel, and you can't turn it off? Dumb.
-Mildly annoyed that I wasted a cryopod on inventory expansion, only for this patch to totally trivialize it.

So far so good. Unfortunate that the patch seems to have impacted some people negatively.
You can change it. If you want to remove it entirely clear the keybindings for dialogue choices for dialogue options. If you want to get rid of the "NUM", clear the "secondary" keybinding for dialogue choices.
 
You can change it. If you want to remove it entirely clear the keybindings for dialogue choices for dialogue options. If you want to get rid of the "NUM", clear the "secondary" keybinding for dialogue choices.
Huh. Derp. Should have thought to look there. Thanks!
 
Patch had done wonders for conversations, even just the eye update makes everyone less weird looking, lip syncing is much better, what a change. Also the inventory level was way too small to begin with, I'm happy they made the minimum and max bigger, makes it far easier to keep different weapons and items without having to worry.

All in all a pretty good patch, makes you wonder why this sort of stuff wasn't part of the game day 1 though, it wasn't game breaking stuff fixed but it was a whole bunch of little things that shouldn't have made it out the gate in the first place.
 
rmXud1v.png


ATJ0O7E.png


h99MEdy.png

A comparison pre and post-patch. Definitely notice a difference.

Characters tend to be more expressive in both body language and facial animation. Small changes but it helps
 
All I'm reading from these patch notes is :

Hey guys we fixed some glaring mistakes but we aren't done yet so please wait a few months to buy our game.

No problem Bioware. See you in July.
 
no. the first part of that sentence does not necessarily equal the second part. iow, no, it's no more likely a matter of time than talent...

if you know what you're doing, you do what you do more efficiently than someone who doesn't. & efficiency = time. there is no inherent reason to assume talent, & simply blame 'time', when time itself is determined by the quality of talent :) ...

i'm not labeling the montreal studio a bunch of hacks. likewise, i'm not gonna simply assume they're talented. i mean, they very likely don't assume i am, either :) ...

When you are pushed to get something done, within a strict and stringent deadline, under the pressure to meet a corporate fiscal quarter, the talent involved is irrelevant in the factor of crunchtime, which one of the worst practices in the industry.

So time is most certainly a factor, whether you want to believe it or not. It is a undeniable thing. Especially when we are talking about a publisher like EA no less.
 
I think Ryder looks a little better during cutscenes but i honestly cant tell the difference. Here is my experience with the game post patch. keep in mind i had zero bugs, glitches, and crashes before the patch.

- Awful performance. Pre patch it was already in the 20s due to my biotic setup which is very explosion and physics heavy as everyone and everything around me gets lifted in midair and one explosion causes multiple explosions. But now it's in the teens. And I mean low teens. Literally chugging along. I cannot even turn my character properly.

- Random freeze during planet hopping. First time i had to restart my game.

- Cutscenes triggered during load screen and i had to guess my dialogue responses on a black screen.

- on two occasions i was warped to the planet surface and had to wait for the whole thing to load.

- Fem Ryder is now a shell of her former awkward self. she is no longer expressive.i think their fix was to tone down the exaggerated facial animations but thats what gave her her personality. now she's just another blanket gruff. give me back my weirdo ryder!

I can live with small glitches but performance should not be this bad regardless of what biotic setup i choose. i can live with framerate in the 20s but 10-15 is just awful especially after i spent 40 hours experimenting and turning my weak build into a godly one.

What platform are you playing on?
 
lol, just can't stop the attack train. I can't believe that people are still going after them when they're releasing fixes. "WELL WHY DINT THEY RELEASE THIS WITH THE GAME?? THEY OBVIOUSLY HAD TIME! THEY OBVIOUSLY ARE INCOMPETANT! I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WITHOUT KNOWING ANY ACTUAL INFORMATION ABOUT IT AND WILL TELL EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET!"

This isn't Making a Murderer guys. Fixing a games problems is a good thing. Play it or don't. Otherwise you're just fighting each other over conjecture.
 
Crazy how fast they fixed the eyes. Why was it ever released in that state in the first place?

We will never know for sure but most likely they knew things like eyes, animations, etc, would be an issue but other things took priority or upper management did not deem it something that required additional work (if that awful management theory is to be believed).

Most likely they had people working on these things after the day 1/early access patch which came out several weeks ago.
 
Finished the game last night (well, I'm at 98% completion - just have a few side quests that are unmarked on maps, which I will probably never do). The only part of the game I was able to play post-patch was
talking to my crew mates after the Meridian victory, finishing the Keri interview quest and doing those N7 trials
, but even in that hour, the subtle change to eyes really made a pretty big difference in terms of immersion and polish. Sames goes for planetary transitions. I only got to reap the benefits in terms of exploring the system around
Meridian
but it made a difference.

My inventory limit is set at 200, which definitely feels like way more than enough.

I guess that's a roundabout way of saying, I wonder how much more I would have enjoyed the game if I'd played it all post-patch. Probably not significantly more, but probably enough to make everything feel just a bit more polished and snappy. Excited to dig into the inevitable DLC, which I hope comes out post-more patches.
 
I apologize if I overlooked the answer to my question but do the improvements to the player creation system mean that we'll be able to edit our current avatar?
 
The Addison "my face is tired" scene is completely different. A lot of the dialogue has been cut and rearranged in addition to the improved animation.

Pre patch:

giphy.gif


Post patch:

giphy.gif

maybe she just learned how to apply her makeup better. :D

i'm actually pretty impressed that you were able to make a decent looking asian ryder. did the patch make your particular character look better?
 
When you are pushed to get something done, within a strict and stringent deadline, under the pressure to meet a corporate fiscal quarter, the talent involved is irrelevant in the factor of crunchtime, which one of the worst practices in the industry.

So time is most certainly a factor, whether you want to believe it or not. It is a undeniable thing. Especially when we are talking about a publisher like EA no less.
Precisely. I know first-hand what a looming deadline can do. Good work takes time, and even the best artists in the world can't make a giant masterpiece overnight. Even the Sistine Chapel has works by Michaelangelo where he was rushed and the quality is nowhere near as good as other parts of it he painted.

Bioware's got some great talent, but it's clear as day they needed more time and weren't given it. It's not the first time either. How soon we forget that DA2 was made in, what, a year and a half? It's not great, but the fact it is as playable and good at it is given the deadline is impressive beyond compare.
 
maybe she just learned how to apply her makeup better. :D

i'm actually pretty impressed that you were able to make a decent looking asian ryder. did the patch make your particular character look better?

Huh? Asian Ryder's are the easiest to make look good.
 
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