Active abilities in ME:A (Updated)

Should even this be true, since when console players are in need of preferential treatment of this magnitude? Since when is ok for them, for anyone for the matter, to desire a dumbed down system instead of a full fleshed out one? Maybe it has to be more complex, sure, but it is at the same time way more rewarding when mastered.

Poor gameplay mechanics (and here I’m talking in a general sense) are never ok, and they don’t magically becomes so because they are “console friendly”. Let’s break this kind of stereotype, shall we?

Right.   Not anywhere close to Shepard's ability but, we can be rock, paper, or scissors while playing the game?

Wait, what?

How does a 'streamlining' neccessarily mean dumbing something down? This is one of the points I think industry wide and a lot of different game franchises, since i have played a lot of different games in my life, intimate that 'streamlining' always equates to making something bad. It just usually seems like older fans of the older games complaining that their super complicated, not user friendly, system is now out of the game because they mastered it when most people cannot. Especially when the goal of any game company is to sell a product, so they have to try and make it accessible and simple to learn.

It remains to be seen if this is a net positive or a net negative, and I myself are dubious, but at the end of the day even the streamlining of DA Is abilities did not annoy me over much.

Limiting the number of active abilities is not magically removing the ARPG elements from the game.

Perhaps  but at least in DAI's defence they still activate and work more or less the same way as before the only change from previous DA games  standard attacks are manually operated now. Judging by the vids we've seen of MEA it look like the powers may work differently this time so until we know how the system itself works we're all grasping at straws we need to wait and see what they can tell us really about this nwe system and how it'll work. Maybe they'll tell us in the next vid/briefing on time will tell though.

yeah but what I mean is that it needs explaining I think before the game comes out purely because it's blatantly obvious it works differntly from the trilogy's games which we'er all used to. Unless you've played MP on ME3  you're not likely going to be familiar withit but my guess is it works even differntly than that one but althouigh I've only ever played MP briefly once it looked like you byu your equipmen tand powers t oan extent using packs. Not suer how that'll translate or worrk in MEA and moer importantly SP. I didn't last long in MP as I wasn't used to how it worked an dI got smashed befoer I had a chance to figure it out really so I gave up on it and went back to SP. I'm not really an MP person anyway I really only went in out of curiosity as I prefer to just be working through stories in my games and fighting AI.

Because objectively this isn’t streamlining.
Streamlining would be speeding up a game mechanic, leaving it untouched at its core. Again, a 3 abilities system (if confirmed), would be, at most, an over-simplification and not for the better. It wouldn’t be an improve, but an impairment. Being ME at its core nor a MMORPG nor a FPS, I would like to see its RPG mechanics enhanced more than simplified.
And again, a 3 ability system can’t be justified because it’s “console friendly” and so ok by default.
Are we really deluding ourselves combat system in ME trilogy was hard to grasp? It wasn’t anything more complex than:

1) Unlock powers with abilities points

2) assign a power slot/activate the power wheel

3) use power


Also, mapping of powers can be done even on a console pad and with simple and intuitive logic to boot. Let’s say…
Oh, I know! Let’s say RT + camera stick correspond at one power for every eight of the circle.
I’m a vanguard:
RT+ UP (1 o’clock)=Charge.
RT+ Down (6 o’clock)= Nova.
RT + Up Left (11 o’clock)= Pull
And so on: with this simple system, that allows for the mapping of powers with a clockwise logic, you would have 12 powers to use in combos on a console pad. More than the ME1, and more than the standard method for keyboards! And allowing the user to choose which powers fit in each “eight” of the circle would create a simple, personalized yet flexible method to spare console player the infamous power wheel (should you find it clunky/ don’t’ like it).
This it’s something I conceived on the fly, so there should be at least 5 more methods to obtain the same on console pads with even more efficiency and flexibility!
No, sorry: I stay convinced poor mechanics aren’t acceptable because they are “console friendly” (what a terrible stereotype) . I’m a no fly zone for this kind of bull.

The more the thread progress, the more I’m convinced this supposed 3 abilities limit (yet to be hopefully denied) could only have been implemented to facilitate transition to the multiplayer. But as it already has been said, Ryder companions will never be as intelligent and capable as the human mates we play with.
So, it would be an artificial and frustrating upper limit and make for a very clunky gameplay, with a difficulty born from sheer mechanics instead of the challenge of mobs. This, without even touching the bleakness that would be the results of a 3 power system for any setups (not only casters).

From the twitter thread:


That twitter implies a few things as i see it:

- it is seamless because the UI won't change when the controller is connected so basicly KB+M users get the same amount of active abilities as controller users (be it PC or console)
- or the game also has a UI designed for KB+M which is a default fallback option when the controller is disconnected, if controller is detected then it changes to the UI we see in videos seamlessly or with some transition effects

But sadly i don't really think they made a UI just for KB+M anymore, because of the unification they want with SP and MP.

To reduce cost.
Pause is present in the game, and it's actually used to switch weapons and type of ammo. True about power wheel, we'll see about the active abilities, if there's something that will mitigate it or help access more abilities in combat without switching them.

DA:I changes its interface when using a controller on PC, so don't assume that.

Also bear in mind that the high standard everyone is comparing M&KB controls to is the ME1's PC port and DA:O. ME1 on PC was released one year after Xbox 360 version ported by Demiurge who were responsible for all the PC-specific actions and there are other differences like how Shepard's lines are during combat, and DA:O was made for PC becuase BioWare thought of it as a PC game but then they decided to make console ports which are definitely the worse versions from a gameplay-POV. DA:I and possibly ME:A is a decent standard for in-house porting from console to PC. DA:I's tactical cam sucked but on PC it at least let you target enemies on the screen with the mouse and toggle pausing on and off instead of holding R2 down all the time. There will be drawbacks but overall I don't expect them to make a shitty PC port.

Yeah that's what's concerning me about the new system as well as I happen to be one of those. I hate games that aer too fast paced to play Heck I hate the QTE's stuck in the Tomb Raider games. Whilst I do like the games and stories and playing as Lara Croft I hate the QTE's and it can take quite a few attempts on my part to get through them as they are frustrating. At least in the trilogy anything that was potentially fast paced like for example escaping the area whilst the thresher maw which takes out the Reaper for you was done as a cinematic. So I welcomed that and I'd rather they kept doing that in the game and nd not start copying the likes of Tomb Raider/Uncharted or whatever and stick with what makes their games unique.

Ryder has had training though. It has been stated (I think in the briefing) that pathfinders have been trained in Biotics and Tech from the start. 

I don't see any difference between Ryder and Shepard in this regard. They both need training together with the appropriate implanted tech in order to access their abilities but Ryder's implanted tech can be reconfigured on the fly (as long as it is to a type of power that he has previously allocated skill points towards).