Powers, Skill Trees and Active Abilities (Official Thread)

I'm still clinging to the idea you will be able to switch between them during combat easily.  Have different sets.  Don't get me wrong if you will only be able to deal with 3 at a time in combat without being able to switch I'll deal but...well lets just put it this way: I imagine my Ryder's will be rocking the passives heavily.  

Passive powers are indeed more likely. 

The only real question that remains is will we be able to switch between different preset profiles? And if so, when and where? In combat (please please please puuhhhllleeeaase!), in the world or in the tempest (dear god no).

Bioware will probably keep up their idea of "It's a tactical choice which 3 powers you choose."

I wasn't making any argument I was just remarking on the irony of the current debate and the circumstances of my current run through

I didn't set out to be efficient it just turned out that I haven't tended to need the other powers very much!

I don't remember my other characters being like that but singularity / warp just turns out to be so good that I rarely need anything else (at least as long as I have a squad mate who can take down the shields first). With Liara in the party too one of us always has the combo.

For some reason I was expecting an Adept run to be harder combat wise than the others but so far it tends to be pretty devastating!


As far as variety goes I don't disagree, it's important. With only three for Ryder and no control of the other squad mates it seems as though our options in combat may be more limited. Even with my Adept runthrough there are still the other squad mate powers that I access (particularly when shields are involved).

Having said that, the fact that each of the powers in MEA can do different things depending on whether you hold the button down or not means you technically choose between six effects and, of course, the ammo powers are in addition to that and the jet pack is another tactical option.

I was also wondering if, maybe, grenades might be treated separately to the three power load out with another button reserved specifically for throwing grenades (most shooters have a button to throw grenades after all).

We may still have plenty of variety.

My biggest worry is the lack of a tactical pause. Pausing the game, searching the battlefield for targets and selecting my and my squad mates actions accordingly is a very different style of combat to what MEA looks to be. I've managed with games with no pause (Halo, for example) but I really like how ME combat has worked up to now and this is definitely going to be an adjustment.

My thinking is that we'll have one or two passive powers and one or two active powers.  Unless we put a point into the active powers and put it on our toolbar, we don't get the passive bonuses from that tree (or tier).

Right, but out of how many trees? In other words, say we have active powers spread across six different trees. Are we gonna get the bonuses from all of them? Or only the ones that we have active on our toolbar?

We'll pick from the usual 3 trees, as Vall said. We'll only get any bonuses from active skills while they are equipped, although it looks unlocking/upgrading skills will improve bonuses associated with relevant profiles.

As for passives, I expect that their bonuses will always apply. Their usefulness will just depend on what active skills you have equipped. Eg a passive bonus to tech damage won't help much if you are using biotic and combat skills.

Ah you mean the whole '+3 constitution on unlock' thing?

I just went back to the wiki and the character builder to check. It seems that these are only attached to passives.

Yeah I suspect that's the reason as well. It seems to me that EA has pressured Bioware to develop a system that can work universally in both SP and MP. I can understand it with MP because your playing with others and this is probably the best way in order to keep things running smoothly but SP shouldn't suffer because of that limitation. Because we'er playing on our lonesome when in that mode and with our Ryder and crew or at least we will be.

Hmm, I understand this concern. I too very frequently made use of the tactical pause in previous ME's. However, I would like to make the point that no tactical pause adds suspense.

Take a more recent game. FFXV was more of an actiony-combaty type of game, and it featured a wait mode. Now for the majority of the game, I used wait mode, because as I was learning the game, non-wait mode was just too much suspense. Then, later when I was better at it, I could switch from wait mode to non-wait mode for additional difficulty and suspense. It was a lot more difficult. 

Now, when switching from SP to MP in ME3, I kept thinking: "How does this work?. I'll have to manually aim all powers? Are you serious?". But, I persevered and in the end, it works. It works very well, even. It grows on you.

And finally, for ME:A. To all the criticisers before the game is actually released. Would a combat pause be nice and help you play? YEs, definetely, Even I'd welcome it. Is it necessary? Hell no. Just because you can't pause a game doesn't mean you can't be strategic. In real life combat situations, you need to think on the fly as well. The enemy is not going to stop trying to put bullets in your face while you're trying to outfox them. 
Now I get that this may put some people off. And some people will ciritcise no matter what. But have you though that maybe this time around they optimised their skills for this situation? For example, pull or throw you used to have to aim around the corner, which was aggrevating sometimes. MAybe this time around, you don't have to aim it around an enemy in cover, and it'll take effect regardless. Same for some tech powers like energy drain or incinerate. I always found the bending ridiculous, and maybe this time they got rid of it to make it more convenient for players to use on the fly. 

"Anyway, that's just may opinion, no need to go spreading it around or anything."

Final Fantasy unless I'm mistaken auto tagets with it's powers based on the enemy you have selected if I'm not mistaken based on my experience with FF13 ME dosen't necessarily do this or at least it hasn't and that's where the tactical pause came in handy as because of my disability I can only move or shoot I cannot move and shoot as I only have 1 hand on the controls. So I've always used the tactical pause to get around that. Besides I'd rather wait and see what Bioware has to say first about the new game before I make any decisions on that. Seeing as they have said they will cover this at some point about how the powers work I'd rather hear it first as I might be able to find a work around that works for me based off of that.

I empathise with your disability, but - to speak frankly - it's not bioware's obligation nor company goal to create games for people who can not properly input all button combinations. When you start a project such as this, you have to take certain things - like the end user being able to work a xbox or PS4 or whatever controller - for granted. Otherwise,t here's no end to your initial product requirements. 

Now, it's absolutely fantastic that the intial trilogy had the pause system. I used it myself a lot too. But this is a new game by a new team. And they have the right to form their vision in any way they please. The end user can only make their voice known by one thing, and that is the purchase. If you boycot the choice for yourself by pre-ordering it, you don't have the right to complain afterwards that the final product did not meet all your criteria. And you definetely don't have the right to do it in advance.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but it's just reality. After every game I play, I also used to have ideas about "how they could have done this better" or "that would have been a lot smarter". But honestly, after having voiced an opinion about so many games and seeing little to no return on it, it just gets tiring. And you realise the futility. Myself, on principle I no longer pre-order. And once I decided to no longer do that, I just learned to accept the games for what they are, and enjoy them how they were created. I no loner pine for 'how awesome my version would have been'. 

In any case. Would it be nice if they held everyone's opinion in mind? Sure. Is it in any way their obligation to their customers? Heck no.