Active abilities in ME:A (Updated)

What's occurred to me is that it is actually the Montreal (rather than the Edmonton) team that's leading the development of MEA, right?

IIRC, the Montreal team was responsible for ME3MP and also the Omega DLC (which was very heavily combat focused).

Dunno whether that's the sole (or even primary) reason for the abandonment of traditional SP features in favor of MP styling, but it is food for thought.

Yeah, so people who prefer more tactical SP play (and don't give a fat rat's crap about MP) have to adapt to MP styled gameplay.

No, not really.  Even if the profiles can be swapped directly in combat, you'll still only be able to have 3-4 (presumably) active at any moment in time.  And you'll have to micromanage different loadouts in the heat of battle.

I guess I have to spell it out for you.

Let's say I have profile 'A' loaded, and it includes singularity, warp, and stasis.  At that moment in time, I have singularity, warp, and stasis active and available.  If I want to use any power other than singularity, warp, or stasis, I have to load a different profile - and when I do load a different profile, singularity, warp, and stasis will no longer be active and available.

Then I switch to profile 'B', which includes reave, pull, and throw.  At that moment in time, I have reave, pull, and throw active and available.  If I want to use any power other than reave, pull, or throw, I have to load a different profile - and when I do load a different profile, reave, pull, and throw will be no longer active and available.

In the course of any given encounter, I may have access to 3 or 6 or 9 or 12 different powers, but I will only have 3 available at any moment in time.

At no point can I simply bring up a powerwheel (and have combat pause) while I review all possible options and select something.  I believe I've already covered the fact that I primarily use the powerwheel for anything beyond 3 powers.  I don't care how DA powers are managed, it's an entirely different game and has auto-targeting to boot.  I understand that more than one power can be mapped to the same button, but that is a feature I do not use and do not want to use.  It represents a significant change in gameplay for me - as does the (presumed) missing mini-map and inability to control squadmates' power use.

The other thing that has not been addressed is how cooldowns will work during profile swaps.  Will the cooldown timer reset at profile change, or continue as is?  If it resets, swapping profiles could be an exploit of the cooldown mechanics.

And DAI's combat was pretty unfun for me. I play DAI DESPITE the "streamlining", not because of it.

If we at least have access to six-eight abilities at once, that would put us more or less within range of the number of active abilities we had in the trilogy.

My understanding is the profiles (which I hear there will be seven) are mainly passive bonuses to emphasize particular "class" abilities.  YOu unlock abilities with skill points, but profiles make them...better.

SAM:  "Assuming direct control of this form" 

I only played DAMP long enough to get the Dragon decor for SKyhold (and to this day I think it's a douche move to hide that behind MP)

DA Is combat was by far and away the most fun I had in the series and I think it is a direct result of them streamlining the system, not tat I particularly liked them streamlining the system.

maybe we do get five powers, each with a different button or buttons. They did say that they wanted to eliminate game pausing.

I would hope so.

I don't know Vetra's power armor seems like something unique to her. That's what made me start thinking about the bonus powers. Also I remember a leaked survey mentioning that squadmates would be able to unlock a new skill tree when they have enough loyalty. Although they could have changed that.