MEA producers talk about final boss and scanning

That was me! 

And I do like it, it was also a nice chance of pace after doing some of the mission. I even did a play-through where I depleted all the planets. As saberchic said, just focus on the highest peak and ignore the rest. You deplete planet fast that way.

yeah I find it relaxing especially after doing one of the tougher missions in the game. In fact to me that's what kind of made it into a sci fi type game instead of just some random shooter type where you're just blowing everything up in sight.

I don't do any scanning, either; but I cheat so that I can still afford my upgrades and everyone still survives, if I wish.

Gotcha. I figured you were referring to one of your speed runs. I learn yet another fact about this series from you. You could write a ME "How To" book, man, and it wouldn't be for dummies. I've likely played a couple thousand hours, and still tag you when I have a question about "what if...".

If I'm interpreting how MEA intends for scanning to work, which is every plant, rock, and/or pile of refuse you come across requires scanning, it's going to be even more time-consuming and tedious than DAI was...I'd happily take ME2's lame planet scanning mechanic to that boring shit. At least it was quick and dirty.

So now we know when the coming promotions talk about over 250 hours of gameplay we'll know 75 hours will be scanning crap for upgrades and the subsequent crafting/building that goes along with it and another 75 will be driving point A to B and back or just aimless wandering in the Nomad trying to find an objective. Doesn't sound like fun to me.

But the point is scanning every rock, mineral, or thing is NOT required.  If the system works anything like Dragon Age Inquisition you can put your time into it and just not do any of that.  You can buy stuff, or you can not engage with the crafting system at all.  Unless you are just a plain full bore completionist who wants to collect all the materials and all the schematics and craft all the things you want to...then at which pint you are just torturing yourself.  RPGs are about player choice.  

You know, I don't mind doing that stuff if there's characters banter involved! They did say there'll be banter while inside the Nomad, so I'm excited for that. Just hoping it's not buggy like in DAI and takes forever for someone to say a line just for us to be attacked and the conversation be suddenly over, that was very annoying. Also no conversations on the horse....

Quick DAI Rant:

Agreed. I addressed this in my precious post, but I'll reiterate that this type of scanning makes narrative and mechanical sense. As long as it doesn't get out of control, it could add a lot of depth to the game.

Secondly, I know some people do skip side quests in Mass Effect, but I just can't imagine doing so! I was never going to skip side quests in this game, anyway, so the possibility of "missing out"... not going to happen. Doesn't everyone assume, though, that they are going to miss out on items, XP, resources and the like if they skip content? How is this upsetting news?

Other than the author having an interesting take on "arduous tasks" equating to "addictive" and "enjoyable" gaming, I don't see anything too weird, or anything in the article that seems to indicate that he is going too far out on a limb with his speculation. He definitely could've been employing more than a bit of speculative hyperbole, colored by personal desires, when he said that MEA devs were making scanning a "very important part of the game". Otherwise, his observations do fit the evidence.

I doubt I am going to spend all day doing anything of the kind when I did not have to do all day doing the collection in DA I.  I did it while I was out doing other quests along the way to doing said quests and I usually ended up with bucket fulls of materials that I could get back and craft for my people.  It may be tedious, but I decided it was worth it.  But I know of people who ignored the crafting mechanic entirely.  As far as the nexus is concerned that could be a possibility, I kind of doubt it but it could be a possibility the power system will return.  However, again speaking at least from my own personal tastes, doing a play through where I am pretty much doing only quests I want to do in the game I am still at well over a hundred power so there are way more quests and things to do in DA I then there was actually needed for power.  Sure, it might be a little bit of an annoying grind at first but soon you are doing things left right and center that give you power and influence to expand. 

Speaking for myself, of course I count on loosing XP, gear, etc when I skip missions, the point is how much. The difference in DAI was huge, Corypheus was harder to beat in lower diffculties with the basic gear and an Inquisitor with a low level than on nightmare in a completionist pt. In fact, I thought it was fun in some way, more challenging. That said, personally, I don't have a big problem with that, because as in DAI, if I gets too frustrating and I have to lower the difficulty, I will do it and that's the end of the problem. I still would prefer if it was more balanced, because as I said earlier, it's not fun either doing a completionist pt and having no challenge at all after a certain point.  

In any case, my only real concern is being forced to do side-missions, and in that sense, I took the warning about not being advisable to stick to the main missions as a good sign, as in "it's a bad idea, but it's possible". Then some people suggeted that the difficulty could in fact function as the power requierements of DAI, actually forcing  you to do side missions just the same. And that does bother me. Even so, I'm hopping this time it might be easier to find fun and interesting side-missions, so, it' might not be as annoying as it was for me in DA.
And, btw, it's not that I don't want do side-missions ever, I have not one but two completionist pt in DAI after all , but I'm not putting 100 hours in a pt very often   Sometimes it's fun though to run a fast pt (to see how different choices work, bring different squadmates, try a different build for the PC, etc) in 15 hours or so, maybe in a weekend, maybe to do a marathon in a lazy sunday, playing until your eyes hurt and you can barely hold the controller anymore