What did you do today in ME?

This came up on tumblr for anyone who is interested. It's a map with ME fans showing where they are. Nothing to identify you beyond url or site name. In case it's something that you may think is fun.

www.zeemaps.com/map?group=2194757

You've seen the best bit now, it only gets steadily worse from here.

Jace Shepard (ME2), Earthborn, sole survivor, infiltrator:

1. Normandy SR1 - While hunting for geth (or whatever was behind the disappearance of 3 ships), attacked by unknown ship. Tore the SR1 to pieces. Had to order Kaidan to leave because he wouldn't go without me. Joker also wouldn't abandon ship so I had to get him out of the cockpit and into a pod. As the other ship was coming around for another shot at the SR1, I was just able to shut Joker's pod. Unfortunately, I had no time to get in one myself and my suit had been breached. I struggled to breathe in the void before it all went black.

2. Lazarus Project - Woke up in pain. People named Miranda and Wilson were talking about me before sending me back to sleep. Next thing I remember was the sound of alarms. The voice of Miranda directed me to a weapon and told me the station was under attack.

You only need to play the easiest level, Bronze, to increase your galactic readiness. Despite the age of the game, multiplayer is still reasonably active, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a game.

If you do happen to have trouble finding a game, or if you find that you enjoy multiplayer and would like to dip your toe into the harder levels, there is a nice forum where you can come and meet people to play with

Well, it doesn't take much to die. lol. No Galactic Readiness necessary. Or even competence.

Oh, That's when. Well, in this case, I am going to do... Exploring, yup, exploring. We need all those sectors scanned and all. I know Thane is just lingering, but I'd like to keep him lingering a little longer

ME1 is on hold for the time being. However, Thursday is my birthday and the Sasquatch has to work. I think that's a good time to get my male biotic going. Been enjoying reading the thread though.

I haven't forgotten about the final letter, but I've been getting ready for an unhappy trip out of town. I'm a little distracted at the moment.

Jace Shepard (ME2):

1. Lazarus Project (continued) - Making my way through this damn place. Mechs are insane here, killing people left and right. Miranda is guiding me. Strange thing is the logo I'm seeing everywhere. Reminds me of one from someplace else...Noveria, I think. [Thanks to straykat for giving me the role play connection in the ExoGeni-Cerberus Link? thread.] I can't remember a single damn good thing about Noveria or any of the companies who set up shop there. Found some logs discussing me: Miranda saying how my recovery was going and Wilson mentioning that over four billion credits were spent on me. That's...a lot of money. Then I ran across some dude with that logo plastered on his outfit. The guy acted like we knew each other but he was fighting mechs so for now he was an ally. After we fought some mechs he said his name was Jacob Taylor. Ex-Alliance. That always makes me suspicious. Most ex-Alliance are retired (age or wounds) or CAT6. I wondered where he fit it. Didn't seem like a nutjob though. He also dropped a bomb by telling me it had been 2 years since the Normandy was destroyed. All that time spent rebuilding me. Now that four billion was making sense. And the place was Project Lazarus. Weird thing was that it was devoted entirely to bringing me back. I can't even imagine who would spend that kind of time or money on me. I'm just one man and I never did anything on my own. He told me most of the crew of the Normandy survived - except Pressly and some lower deck personnel. Damn. Taylor and I went to find Wilson who apparently was shot. I applied some medigel but things weren't adding up where he was concerned. Still, I didn't know any of them so I couldn't make any decisions about them just yet. Taylor definitely didn't trust him. Then another bomb was dropped. Taylor told me Cerberus was behind Lazarus. My memories of them...they hurt and killed a lot of people, including Admiral Kahoku. Then I remembered the logo. Something very similar belonged to Binary Helix, which was run by Saren. I already suspected a link between them and Cerberus (Saren worked for the Reapers and Cerberus made husks). I don't know if this is confirmation but it's definitely suspicious. All of a sudden feeling like there's no one I can trust. When we got to the shuttle, Miranda appeared and shot Wilson in the head. Oddly enough, this made me like her. Still suspicious of Cerberus but this woman spend two years of her life putting me back together. I can at least withhold judgment on her for now. Then we left.

2. Unknown Cerberus Base - Met with the Illusive Man, or at least a holo of him. He told me he brought be back to fight the Reapers, specifically citing he wanted me as I was when I faced Sovereign. Then he told me human colonies were disappearing without a trace and that was where I ought to begin my investigation. He mentioned that the losses the Alliance took from fighting Sovereign is one reason why they're not more involved in looking for the culprits. That made some sense so I agreed to go with Miranda and Taylor to Freedom's Progress, the most recent colony to disappear. Here's my takeaway: The Illusive Man doesn't care what I think of him, only that I get the job done. Miranda doesn't trust me. Jacob wants my approval. Funny that the one I trusted most doesn't seem to like me. I definitely don't trust the Illusive Man but I can use his resources. Jacob...we'll see. He might be okay.

I see what the problem is. Bioware, for some odd reason, made the quick match pre-set to Platinum. Platinum is the hardest difficulty and there are not usually that many lobbies for it. You should change the match to bronze, the easiest difficulty, where you can find games pretty easily. As a new player, follow all these steps:
1) First, make sure you have all the free multiplayer DLC expansions.
2) In the MP menu, go to the Store, and open the free starter packs, where you will get an Ultra-rare N7 weapon and maybe a character.
3) Choose a human character to start off, the best for beginners are the Adept or the Engineer. Equip one weapon as cool downs are a lot more important on MP. The Avenger, Predator are probably the best to start off with. If your black (ultra-rare) weapon is one that you are comfortable with using, this is also a good choice.
4) Go to quick match, and select a bronze game. You should find a full lobby to play on, as MP takes a lot of getting used to, and more players should make it easier.
5) The recruit packs are the best to get first, to unlock more weapon mods, and like all packs, you can use in-game credits that you get from completing mission waves (3, 6 and 10).

Hopefully this helps a little. The main thing is to get all the DLC, and play bronze with a comfortable character and weapon for you.

Absolutely no in in NYC, at least on that map.  I'm on my own!

Ty so much, that's the kind of thread I was looking for, and for the life of mine I can't believe I did not spot it. Loading up on the info 🤗

I've been doing other things, so nothing Mass Effect related, unless you count me making a little more progress in copying the rest of the ME3MP bug list/posts. I am almost ready to post it in the multiplayer forum, Natashina. Again, I apologize for being tardy with this assignment.

Anyway, I totally forgot to plan out Shawna Shepard's suicide mission, so I figured I had better do that tonight. Her theme is 'anti-biotic', so all biotic squadmates must die. Here is the plan:


Spare: Zaeed, Kasumi, Mordin, Garrus, Grunt, Tali, Legion
Kill: Jacob, Miranda, Jack, Thane, Samara/Morinth


1. Side with Jack during her dispute with Miranda. Miranda becomes unloyal.

2. Ship upgrades:
- Do not research armor upgrade: Jack dies
- Research shield upgrade: spare Kasumi/Tali/Legion
- Do not research weapon upgrade: Thane dies

3. Suicide mission, vents:
- Vent: Tali/Legion/Kasumi
- Second fire team leader: Garrus

4. Suicide mission, bubble:
- Send back with crew, or whatever's left of the crew: Tali
- Biotic bubble: Miranda
- Biotic bubble squadmates: Jacob (dies), Mordin
- Second fire team leader: Samara/Morinth (dies)

5. Suicide mission, final push:
- Reaper squad: Miranda (dies), Mordin
- Hold the line: Garrus, Zaeed, Grunt, Legion, Kasumi


I still have not decided yet if I should let crew members die; it has been a while since I have done it.
Also, I totally forget if Shawna was going to keep or destroy the base. I better double-check that. (It depends on what i did the last three actual playthroughs, not counting the speedrun. I want to make sure I have a 50/50 split when it comes to keep/destroy.)