What makes Mass Effect 3 multiplayer so good?

Let's gooooo   Dust off that Xbox doc, I'll be on sometime around 11 

bah, nothing wrong with that bud. you can trust me on this  dis kinda all about the Ballmer Peak in a way, memebr

"Remember Windows ME?"

You, sir, are a master of patience though! Much to learn have I.

The reason why Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer is so fun is because, the Avenger is a common, versatile, military-grade assault rifle manufactured by the Elkoss Combine. It's accurate when fired in short bursts, and deadly when fired on full auto. The modular design and inexpensive components of the Avenger make it a favorite of military groups and mercenaries alike. The rifle has a reputation for being tough, reliable, easy to use, and easy to upgrade.

That, & dem hips.

I m amazed too.
Same waves of stupid AI's for thousands of hours on th same maps we could circle eyes closed, with the permanent cover bugs and cheating ...


We are intoxicated for sure!

Actually, not all the AI is as stupid as it appears. Some of the enemies actually have almost intellgent AI, but their base stats aren't enough to show it. Ravagers, for example, if you speed them up, they will run to cover when taking damage, and then spawn Swarmers before trying to attack you again (I have massively increased Ravager movement speed, and acceleration, and made them spawn more swarmers in a batch, making them more visible). Atlas AI actually have a severe disadvantage in the pre-attack and post-attack timings, they have to stop and wait before they can actually attack, and can't immediately start moving again (autocannon fire is slightly better, but missiles, which seem to have a high enough priority to mess it all up, have a really long charge up and cool down before they can move again). Pyros are relentlessly aggressive when sped up (I'll add a short vid later of one hounding Arktinen's volus), they make Dragoons look friendly. There's also a few good ideas in the scripting, like the Collector tendancy to swarm (take cover and wait for allies), and the Marauder plating boost, and Cannibal accuracy bonus from plating, etc. The real problems lie more in the fact that the enemies have too low a movement speed, too low a shield count, and players can kill them way too fast for most of the AI to show (not necessarily a bad thing from a gameplay/enjoyment perspective, but it means we don't really notice the AI as much as seems to have been intended).

I've learnt a lot of things that don't seem apparent by digging into the enemy stats and AI priorities making my mods, and more than anything, it makes me sad that most players will never understand the potential of some of the enemies, because they just can't utilize themselves (the enemies) correctly. This really is a great game, despite the shortcomings, and the modding potential, whilst limited, can do a lot to remedy the shortcomings, if you're masochistic enough, and I'm pretty sure most of us are at this point.

"Hungry Cannibal" variable in game files helps with this. It increases both cannibal run speed when trying to eat people, and increases the animation speed for actually eating them. I haven't looked into fixing the Marauder one yet though. You are correct though, some enemies are really dumb, but some are just unfortunate.

I haven't found another online game that adequately strokes my e-peen so it's ME3MP until I lose all sensation.

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree that everything shouldn't be a bullet sponge. I can change AI Priority on a few things, like Atlas cabin block stance (and I think maybe Marauder Plating move? In a normal 8 Enemies match, I'd lower this, but in mine, there are large amounts of marauders, with other units, like ravagers, rushing you, so they actually tend to get the move off without being molested too badly). Ravagers and Pyros really are some of the real killers in the game, with the other units "distracting" your, or physically blocking your shots or demanding attention by getting up in your face, they are SERIOUSLY bad voodoo with increased speed. I've been considering trying to improve the AI priority of a few units, like the Atlas or Prime, in order to tweak their behaviour, but as muahmuah said after soloing my mod, "Primes are bad enough already", do we really want Primes who Siege Pulse more? Do we really want Atlases who do/don't fire missiles?
Hmm, actually, this sounds pretty good, 12 Geth Primes spamming Siege Pulse!

Part of the problem I am encountering though, is that with the exception of "Hungry Cannibal"s, there seems to be very little option for speeding up the enemy ANIMATIONS, which seems to be what holds them back most, for instance, Marauder Plating stance would be a lot more interesting at 1/2 or even 1/3 the duration required, or if Scion slap attack was 40% faster (would still stunlock, but would be done and ready to defend quicker for those that manage to escape). Part of what holds me back in REALLY digging deeper (like trying to shorter the time within a Ravager's burst, without reducing the time between bursts), is that I don't want to alienate the people I play with (All modding of Hunters and Dragoons was already ruled out by consensus ). I guess there's a fine line to walk between increasing pressure on the player, and making it less fun. I will admit at this point to making a few tweaks to improve player options vs my increased enemy strength though, such as original pet behaviour is restored, so melee units don't completely ignore pets (although turret/drone/etc could be used to trigger anti-power bubbles, and even sometimes banshee nova script) to try and keep this fun factor with the increased pressure. I don't, however, modify player or enemy health, because as you implied, bullet sponges as less fun, nor would being immortal tanks be fun. And only damage modification has been to Swarmers, their DoT damage was slightly reduced (but duration left intact as a shield regen prevention), to balance out increased number spawned in a volley.

TL;DR I've done very little actual changes to AI, so MOST of the changes are just more enemies at once (12 active instead of 8) and movement speed of units (Ravagers, Swarmers, Abombs, "blaze" charged Abombs, Atlases, Scions, Pyros, Primes, and "hungry cannibals"). I really would like to have more control over Animation Speed though, so I could speed up things like Prime pet spawning, or Marauder plating, or Ravager melee attack, possibly even collection possession animation (I admit, increasing Dragoon Smash animation speed would be totally bonkers, and I don't hate myself enough to wish for THAT change). Closest would be increased the time compression on Gold/Plat (make plat 2x speed, instead of 1.2x or whatever it is now, I forget), but it's not really the same).

All the main points have been mentioned already, so I'll just agree with those.

This is also the only multiplayer game I play, and it is one of the very few games (of a total I can count with one hand), that I do actually play. And it is the only game that I've ever played this long (a few years now, I was a late starter) and this frequently.
No other game has kept its interest this long. None.

Bonus: it is the best co-op game I regularly play with my husband, who introduced me to it. Couples who play together, stay together.